Happy Holidays

Well, we certainly had a lot of fun over the holidays. We spent Saturday at Paula's for some gift opening and to see the family from Roseburg. Some of the awesome presents were a Marble set from Great Grandpa George for Odin, a plastic stool (which is easier for Odin to move in the bathroom) from Grandma Paula, some great Little People toys, and tons of clothes. Freya also got a lot of clothes, as well as a cute dog to chase after when she starts crawling and some Bum Genius cloth diaper stuff. Also, she got Warmies, which are cloths wipes made from Bamboo (these things are the softest cloth I've every felt) and they stay in a container which keeps them warm and moist so they feel better for her.

Sunday we went up to Portland to see Nana and Grandpa Mark, and then off to hang out with Zaideh and his mom, Great Grandma Janet. More toys and clothes, including some stuff for Odin to use with his train tracks, and one of the coolest things Odin and Freya got was from Great-Grandma; a needle-point picture with their names stiched in. It's haning in their room right now.

We took Monday off and kept Odin home from school to have a recuperation day as a family. (Which mean crusing the mall all day having fun!)

Doctor Visit

We took Freya to her 2-month check-up last Friday to discover that we were right in thinking she was getting heavy. She had a 15.5 inch head (52nd percentile), 22 inches tall (25%), and 13 lbs 4.7 oz (90%). The doctor was really impressed at how well she was doing, and we gave her some immunizations. The funny thing is that Freya was more upset about how cold the alcohol swab was than the shots themselves.

Happy fun times

Freya's been smiling and talking so much lately! Alyssa and I were just talking about how nice it'll be to experience a bunch of firsts all over again, like the first tooth, first steps, first solid food, etc. She's really getting good at holding up her head and moving around, I think we're gonna get rolling soon and creeping after that.

Today we took our family to the mall to get Odin and Freya some gifts with some holiday money we received. Scored tons of cool stuff, and Odin asked to sit with Santa. We got a super cute photo of Odin sitting with him:

From Oct - Dec '09

Alyssa and I are focusing on trying to get ourselves to focus on studying for the upcoming term, yes, we need to study over vacation, but oh well.

Dentist!

Odin had his first dentist appointment today! (I know it took forever, we had insurance issues.) They told him about flossing, and looked at his teeth to discover they are all perfect! We were told to keep up the good work and he went home with a new toothbrush! I added 3 pictures of him sitting in the chair with Alyssa to the Oct - Dec '09 album.

About half an hour ago I shot this video of Freya smiling at her Jungle Bouncer:

From Oct - Dec '09

Putters

Today we took Odin, Freya, and Zaideh to Putters for pizza and mini-golf. It was tons of fun, though Odin's attention span barely made it past the front 9. Odin played a lot in the indoor slide area and we all ate pizza together. It was tons of fun. I've put the pictures, as well as a few random shots of Odin and Freya together, in the Oct - Dec '09 album.

Free at last!

All the finals are done, the end-term projects, the tests, everything. We're on vacation.

It's been an interesting term; having a baby, helping Dad with his heart surgery/recovery, dealing with school, etc., etc..... Somehow we made it through, and even passed our classes at that. Imagine.

Freya's been smiling quite a bit lately. No laughs yet, but we're working on it. Odin comes home singing a new song almost every day. He's having a great time at school. Today he came home and was singing We Will Rock You by Queen pretty well, which is an interesting coincidence because I was practicing the solo at the end of that song a few weeks ago, so maybe we can play/sing it together now that I'll have time to practice.

Alyssa's been talking about how relieved she is that she can spend some quality time with Freya now that the term is over. Actually, we've both talked about that. It's really nice being able to pay attention to our kids for once, led. than knowing in the back of our heads that there's still homework to get to. We said we wanted to plan next term better so we wouldn't have to bring work home with us.

Speaking of next term, we've already picked our classes, kind-of. Alyssa is in more of the same really; lots of music classes. She's working on a piece to be performed live (by her and one other instrumentalist) in the FMO concert next term. Should be interesting. Unfortunately her Gamelan class ended up being canceled.

Next term I'll be in Ancient Greek 102, Victory Art of Greece and Rome, and Intensive first-year Italian. Right now that last one is up-in-the-air if I can resolve an issue with a blocked History course I need for my major.

It's just so nice being able to hang out at home and do things we want to do without worrying about what we have to do.

That's all for now. I'll write more soon, now that I have time to!

Going well

This morning Freya had a fever so we took her to the doctor. They swabbed her nose 3 times testing for different things but didn't find anything and the last test takes a day to do so they sent us home (back to school) with the instructions "just watch her closely." She's quite fine now so I'm sure it was nothing serious.

Odin had been having some trouble being picked up from school a few weeks ago but the teachers worked with us and now he's doing a great job.

Tomorrow will be the last day of class for Alyssa and I this term. We'll have the weekend and part of next week to study and then take our final exams. I have already passed (just barely!) the astronomy class I was taking so I can focus on my other classes. Next term Alyssa is in more music classes and voice lessons, but also a Gamelan Ensemble. She'll learn how to play, and the teacher might select her to compose for Gamelan with half of the class. I'll be in more Ancient Greek, an Intensive first-year Italian course, and Victory Art of Greece and Rome. Very excited.

Anyway, that's all for now. Back to studying.

What's been going on

So we've been just so busy with school that we haven't had time to do much, but here's a little bit.

Dad had triply bypass open heart surgery a week or so ago and that caused a bit of grief. I'm not mad at him, but all the driving around and going to do things and taking care of The Family led us to use a lot of time and money that put us in a bit of a position. I'm glad I was able to be there for him though. He came through fine and we're going over to celebrate his birthday later this evening.

School has been a bit rough on both of us. We have a lot of work to do and not much time to do it. We persevere, but it seems to get harder by the day. Some day, our peers will look back in amazement that we got good grades through graduation despite having two children, and that appreciation will make it worth it (Thank you to those of you who have already recognized this, you know who you are.)

Odin has been a bit of a trouble maker lately. He refuses to leave school and he never says goodbye. Also, he has no limit of energy and if you stop paying attention to him for even a second the rest of the evening is about thwarting his notorious deeds. It's trying but we're getting through it. Sometimes I think he doesn't like me.

I fell bad all the time because I fell like sometimes our kids are forced to take a backseat (literally and metaphorically) to the rest of the things we have to do to keep it all together, and that might be part of the reason why Odin keeps acting out. More on that later.

In the meantime, I've just finished adding some pictures to the Oct - Dec '09 album, including one of Freya we finally caught on camera!

From Oct - Dec '09

Missing blog post

My goodness I just haven't had the time....

A few moments

Odin is with Grandma, Freya is asleep, Alyssa is in the lab, and I have a moment to myself for homework, which I'm not going to do of course so I thought I'd write a bit of a post.

Alyssa and I have been a bit sick. Nothing serious, but it's causing a lot of discomfort.

Last night we took Odin and Freya trick-or-treating with Jake and Rylie. It was tons of fun. Rylie hadn't been really trick-or-treating due to the structure of the neighborhoods around her and we took her to the district near us with all the half-million dollar hoses where they give out whole candy bars. It'll be hard to top that. Odin was really well behaved and we took a picture or two before heading out so there's a costume shot somewhere.

Still haven't gotten all the pics together yet, just haven't had enough time.

Speaking of which, I should get to the homework....

Some more shots

School has just kept us too busy and I haven't had time for an update. So for now, have some more pictures added to the Oct - Dec '09 album, including this gem of a video:

From Oct - Dec '09

I'll also add some pics from when cousin Mikey and Uncle Eric were here, as well as more stuff from the hospital when I get around to it.

Checkup

We took Freya to the doctor today to find that everything is going great. She was 8lbs (30%) and 19.25 inches (10%) and doing better than ever.

Yesterday Odin brought home a pumpkin from his hay-ride pumpkin patch field trip with his school. He told us about throwing small pumpkins at scarecrow targets and looking around for a good pumpkin.

School has been going well for us. We're keeping up and Freya is behaving enough. The Moby Wrap is really helping us carry her around without lots of extra stuff.

More astronomy homework to do....

Halloween Carnival

Last night we took Odin and Freya to the carnival at Odin's school. They had lots of games and treats and Odin had a great time for almost an hour. His favorite games were doughnut dangle (in which he had to eat a doughnut off a string without using his hands) and pumpkin bowling which he played waaaaaaaay too much. Odin picked out a Thomas bucket in the Halloween store but was too scared to look for a costume so we put him in the outfit Nana got him and called him an engineer. Freya wore a gown that was all orange with a face on it and said "'lil punkin" on the front. We'll have pictures later.

Oh, and Odin just reminded me that he finally got Duke the train! I forgot to mention it, but when Mikey came to town, he gave Odin the Duke and Duke's Coal Car set which he and Uncle Eric found! We thought it had been discontinued and they found it for us! Really rare. It was Odin's favorite when he was a year old whenever he played at Barnes and Noble.

Campus

Today Alyssa and I had some minor business affairs to take care of on Campus so we took Freya with us and I've been sitting around reading homework with her while Alyssa does some stuff she needed to finish. It's been pretty good, and I'm glad we did it because we needed the dry run to see what things we need to think about while we're doing it for real next week.

After we meet back up again (in about half an hour or so) we're going to Paula's house where Odin is playing with Mikey and we'll all play for a bit. Then I think the plan is that Odin is going to have a sleep-over with them there and I don't know what beyond that but it'll be fun!

Eric and Mikey!

Cousin Mikey and Uncle Eric came to town today. Odin got to go play Thomas trains with Mikey and we all ate Mucho Gusto together!

I've put some pics up in a new album.

Oct - Dec '09

Pictures of our family

I finally got some pictures up from our camera. These are all of the first few days. There are a few video's as well, but they aren't up yet because I need to edit them, though there is this one:

From Freya!

The pictures, as always, are linked on our Picasa Albums which, as always, is linked on the right.

Yay! Home!

We checked out of the hospital yesterday (Friday) at noon, which is pretty speedy if you ask anyone. At home, we just spent the afternoon with Brandy and Paula and Kellie and sat around relaxing, and watched a movie together in the evening. Odin is really great with Freya; he knows how to be gentle. When I picked him up from school, I took him to the doctor to see if she though he should stay away from Freya while he's sick. Dr. Dzubay said he just had a mild cold or something and he just needed to wear a mask around her or else be careful about coughing on her (which he is) and wash his hands a lot (which he does). We also got him a flu shot, just in case, but not the H1N1 stuff because that's gross. Today he's really coughing bad and seems really sick, but he isn't actually; he just has symptoms from the shot.

Freya slept really well; she only got up to eat a few times (normal) and it was only hard on both of us because Alyssa can't move much yet, but we still got about 6-7 hours of good sleep and woke up feeling fine.

Uncle Jake is watching Odin right now so we can get a little homework done. But first we went out and got a sun-shield for Freya's window of the car (Odin never cared, but she hates the light in her eyes), and a bouncer for her to sit in and some really discounted clothes that are warm and cute.

Speaking of which, better get back to it.....

Things going well.

So far everything has been fine. The pediatricians have come and looked at Freya, the nurses and doctors have looked at Alyssa, and everything is going great. We only had some trouble with a lot of gas during the night but other than that Alyssa and I actually got to sleep quite a bit. Alyssa has been going to the bathroom on her own and Freya is nursing really well.

Freya had her pictures taken also, and they're now up on the baby @lbum which I've also added a link to on the side.

Freya's song

Well we spent last night cleaning up the house and doing all the dishes and taking out all the garbage and doing all the laundry and everything else we could think of so that a) our house wouldn't get smelly while we were away and b) it would be nice to come home to and c) we wouldn't have to do anything while we were sleep deprived with a new baby. We tried to sleep that night but couldn't so watched the latest episode of House on iTunes and then fell asleep half way through. We got about 4 hours of sleep and woke up to get ready. Everything was packed, so mostly we just had to get dressed and head out.

We got to the hospital and were shown to where we need to go. The nurses refused to allow Brandy (our Doula) in with us while Alyssa was getting prepped, and we later learned they were upset we even asked. Oh well. Brandy also wasn't going to be allowed in after Freya was born. Our plan, and request, had been that when the nurses take Freya into the antechamber to be examined, that I go with her and Brandy be allowed in to stay with Alyssa so she wouldn't be alone. They only allow one in at a time, so we figured Brandy could just step in when I left with Freya, but the nurses said no again (even though our doctor had said Yes) so I told them that they can look at Freya but I was going to hold her and sit with Alyssa until she was done, which I did. Dr. Katz assisted Dr. QB to make sure there was no accreta problems and confirmed that nothing at all was wrong.

In the recovery room we were taken care of by the nurse who had prepped us, Yvonne Lai, and she was really nice and very helpful, as was Tamerah the baby nurse who helped me to bathe Freya. We stayed there for a while because it took Alyssa some time to regain feeling in her lower half but were then moved to our room. I left to get Odin and bring him in and we had some great family time. Odin is very gentle and nice with Freya; he kisses and hugs her with just the right amount of pressure and he's careful around her and was good when we taught him how to hold her.

We spent the rest of the day sitting around our room entertaining and being entertained by our numerous guests and now Freya is nursing again while I write this and we're just relaxing. Thankfully we will have more visitors tomorrow, including my father and brother who are bringing their dinner to have with us, and hopefully we wont get too bored with all the homework we brought with us. (I know, lame, right? That's the life of a student.)

Dr. QB did visit us about an hour ago and said that Alyssa seemed great, especially considering she was on no pain medication again (just as she was with Odin's birth), and told us that we'd be fine with discharging Friday afternoon or evening, so we get to go home one day earlier than we thought!

She's so beautiful and wonderful. It's amazing how quite she is, especially compared to how Odin was (is). She's sleeping a lot and we'll soon see how day 2 goes.

I took lots of pictures but I have no way of getting them off the camera, and lots of other people took pictures as well so as soon as I get them all together I'll put them online for everyone.

Thanks to everyone who was here today and helped us out!

Freya Shannon Aska
Born October 7th, 2009 at 8:11 am
7 pounds 2.2 ounces, 19 inches and 13.25 inch head. 50th percentile in all categories.

All clear

Both our kids got their pictures taken today.

At Odin's school they had a photographer come by for Picture Day. Don't worry, we made sure to comb his hair.

We also had an MFM appointment for Alyssa and Freya. The doctor said that everything looks fine and there's no risk of accreta as far as he can tell so Wednesday morning we will have a normal c-section.

We're counting down the days!

Eventful Day

The first day of classes!

I had Ancient Greek in translation today. I've been told that it's difficult, but the instructor began the class by telling us that statistics say, and his data from teaching this class previously agrees, that only 30% of us will finish the class at the end of the year. Yay.

Then I sped off to the hospital for Alyssa's last appointment. Brandy, our doula (who also married us), came to go over our birth plan with the doctor, who told us that everything was going great.

Then we headed back to campus for Alyssa's classes and I sat down to study after resolving some red-tape issues with the school administration.

I just finished my homework and I was heading out to get Odin when I decided to write this on the way. He went on a field trip today to get fish for the tank in his classroom and I'm going to ask him how it went.

:)

Ready

We finally collected the last piece today; a dresser. We managed to find one that is build pretty good and was on sale for a helluva good price so we got it. Now we have the dresser, a crib, the stroller, diapers, a moby wrap, etc, etc. and all the stuff we need for Freya except for bottles for me to feed her when Alyssa needs a break and we don't need those yet anyway.

We had a fun day too; Alyssa and I went to see Inglorious Basterds (which was AMAZING) and then got Odin, met up with Paula to hang out and bring the dresser home, then went out to eat.

Robot Arm

Today we got Odin one of those robot grabber arms that have a yellow handle and a red hand. He loves it; he's walking all over the house grabbing stuff.

I also found out that I qualify for one of the distance courses offered at the U of O. I can work from home or whenever I am at a computer with internet, rather than go to a physical class, and I don't need to pay for a textbook because everything is electronic. This means that I can drop my 8am class. Odin doesn't like getting up that early to go to school, so now he'll uniformly go at 9:30 every morning, which is much better for all of us, including Alyssa and Freya.

We spent our afternoon walking around Toys R Us getting stuff for both kids with the gift card we received and we're spending our evening with pop cord and the 2 hour season premier of House!

Surprise!

Today the family from Roseburg came down to see us all here in Eugene and we all hung out for a bit and ran some errands and such. While we were at the mall, Zaideh met us at Fletcher's and bought us the stroller we wanted. (I'm sure we'll put some pictures up of us using it with both kids sooner or later.) We took Odin for a spin in it through the mall and he just loved it. Then we all headed back to Paula's place again and I went over to our clubhouse to set up Alyssa's surprise baby-shower.

It went off pretty good: I managed to keep it a secret from Alyssa all week, and we got all the food and decorations and such taken care of pretty well. Lots of people I contacted never showed up (or even responded) but we still had lots of people. Alyssa was really surprised and really happy. We got tons of cool stuff for Freya like clothes, towels, sleepers, and all kinds of nice stuff. There were books, and toys, and my mother even knit her some stuff! We had a great time.

Thanks to all those who came!

Art

Today we got to bring home one of the pieces of art that Odin did at school. It's a nice bright colored Ice Cube painting. They freeze paint with water in ice-cube trays with q-tips sticking out and then they take those out to paint with. It's going on a wall of collections of what he does at school!

A more exact date!

So we have our c-section scheduled for October 7th at 7:45 am (and we have to be there 2 hours early!). Odin is going to stay at Grandma Paula's house the previous night and she will bring him to see us and Freya once the dust has settled, and he wont go to school that day but he will the next (so that he doesn't get out of routine too much). For those interested in visiting, the protocol we'd like is thus: If you want to hang around the hospital or just be near by, go for it, but don't come looking for us until you get the all-clear. We really want some time for just our family before we let a bunch of people over. Also, don't feel like you have to visit on the first day, because we'll likely have to be there for three days and not only will we want more visitors to pass the time, but everything on the first day can be overwhelming.

In other news, when we picked up Odin from school today there was an "Accident Report" in our mailbox. Apparently Odin had jumped from a very high ledge (which is exactly what we caught him doing, and teaching to the rest of the class, when we picked him up yesterday) and when he landed he bumped into a near-by pole intended for sliding down. According to the report, he didn't cry, and after they comforted him he said "I feel better" and went back to playing. As Alyssa and I were reading this, we couldn't help but laugh out loud because he does this exact same thing all the time for us and we could just see it all happening in our heads.

Also, when we told him we wanted to take him home, he ran to a table and drew us each a picture and brought it over to us one at a time. It was very sweet.

Pcitures from my Phone

My phone told me it was running out of space so I transferred all the pictures I wanted to keep to the computer and added them to an album. They're from all over the place in the last year.

Phone Pics as of 9:14

A date!

We went to see Dr. QB today who scheduled us for a c-section on the 7th or 8th of October. Not long now until we get to meet Freya!

"I wanna get going!"

Today Odin got up and couldn't wait to get to school. He was still a little hesitant when we got there, but once he warmed up again and saw Suzanne playing with Thomas trains and tracks, he got right to it and never looked back at us.

School!

Odin put up just as much of a fight to be taken home as he put up to be taken there. The first thing the teacher told us when we got there was that he did a great job and had a really good time. He was crying when we put him in the car because he wanted to stay but he calmed down when we promised he'd get to go back tomorrow. Also, he really pathetically but politely asked for a "steamer" so we just had to get him one. Did I mention that yet? We've been going to Dutch Bro's a lot and he likes to get a raspberry soy-milk steamer so we've got a huge collection of the DB Kids' cups.

Odin's first day of School!

Getting Odin up was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. We brought him in our bed so he could wake up gradually and he fell back asleep with Alyssa while I got up to get his stuff ready. When we tried to get him up together, he cried about how he wanted to stay in Mommy's bed and sleep. He was in the car on the way to school recognizing the neighborhood before he stopped crying. Getting his clothes on took both of us working together against his efforts, and I tell you I've had more success in jujitsu matches against guys two feet taller than me.

When we got him there, it took him a minute to warm up, but Suzanne (the woman in charge of his group, the "Panda" class) was really helpful and we taught him her name and that he can ask her for food or to go to the bathroom. She's been working that class for 14 years and she's really nice and helped him out a lot. Alyssa and I have been walking around the apartment all day so far talking about how weird it is to not have him here and wondering what he's up to and how he's doing. We even check the print-out of his schedule so we know what he's doing right at this moment. We really love the free time but we also miss him a lot!

Good news today!

We took Odin to his new school in the morning and he really loved it. He was shy at first but he warmed up to the staff after a bit and didn't want to leave. He'll be getting meals and snacks there which are vegetarian and sugar-free (they use honey), and he gets a back-rub before nap-time and they teach him about gardening and how to put his own shoes on and get dressed and all sorts of awesome stuff! He really liked it and we went to bed tonight talking about how much he wanted to go back.

After that, we went back to MFM for the pictures and got great news! Dr. Katz no longer thinks there is an accreta so he says the most he thinks we need to do is have him scrub-in on the c-section in case it looks bad. But that means that we can have a c-section where Alyssa can be awake and I can be there! We still need the scheduled c-section at 39 weeks because she still has a low-lying placenta, but at least its not nearly as bad as we thought! We go to Dr. QB on Friday to get his final word and figure out when everything will work out.

Eager to find the news

On Friday we went to see our OB who said that there is a good chance that we can go for a normal c-section (which means Alyssa can be awake and I can be there) and if it looks serious then they'll put her out and take care of it. But that means that she'll be able to nurse Freya and wouldn't be put out for too long, so we left that appointment with some good news for the first time in a while. We see the doctor at Maternal Fetal Medicine tomorrow to get more detailed pictures and double check everything. It's basically the appointment where we get the final decision about what our options are.

For the time being, we're just enjoying our vacation (which will be much better when we finish with our Dex route -- did I forget to mention that?) and Odin is going to school starting Wednesday so we're excited for him about that.

I'll be sure to upload something after our appointment tomorrow. And I'll start adding photo's and video's again as soon as I either find my camera cord or come up with money for another one.

Pictures from the beach

On this trip, Odin taught us that we need to live on a beach, wherever we end up, it has to be on the ocean-front.

Beach Trip 8/21

Another fun day!

Yesterday we took a day trip out to Roseburg for Great-Grandpa-George's 84th birthday. We all had a nice meal at Coyote Jack's and then took a tour of Linus Links, the new put area George designed for the property he lives on. When we got back to town we hung out at Grandma Paula's for snacks and then headed home to relax. It was truly a fun day hanging out with family.

Very fun day

We had an awesome day today.

In the morning we met Zaideh for Cafe Yumm! breakfast and had a great time with him. Then we went out to a bunch of garage sales and found tons of cool toys for Odin and lots of great clothes for Freya. Then we picked up Grandma Paula and she came with us to a few. I manged to find a really sweet guitar amp for super cheep and I'm going back to pick it up tomorrow! I'm so happy because I thought I'd never get one and I'm at the point that I need one or I can't practice properly. Then we went to a baby-stuff re-sale shop and found even more awesome clothes for both Freya and Odin, and Grandma Paula also bought Odin a really cool Thomas the Tank Engine backpack for when he starts school and a perfect pack-and-play crib for Freya. It's really high-quality, in great condition, and a very nice pattern. We were so happy, we felt really lucky we had found so many good things all day.

Afterwards, we went to Grandpa Paula's house and had a very lovely dinner; ships off the barbie, delicious salads, ripe grapes, bread and butter, and coconut cream cake for desert! We all just hung out for a while and then Paula let me drive her new truck around while we ran a last-minute errand so I'd be used to it for the next time we all took a trip together.

Tomorrow morning, Zaideh is coming over for pancakes with fresh-fruit and then we're taking a trip to see some family! It's been/going to be an awesome weekend.

Beach

We went to Lincoln City to spread the ashes of my Nana at her favorite spot. The drive up was excruciating, but I'm glad I went. Steve talked about saying goodbye and letting go and it helped me cope a little and I felt better leaving the ceremony. Odin played with Jake and Grandpa Mark on the beach and had too much fun for it to be legal, and I've never seen the weather that good at the beach. We all had fun eating out together and just spent the day having a good time, it was a nice Friday afternoon.

Tension

Yesterday we went to MFM to get some better shots of what's going on inside Alyssa and figure out where we stand. Right now the doctor said that it looks a lot better; the placenta is higher and it doesn't appear to be a serious Accreta. It does still look like it's stuck in one spot so that could mean they only have to cut out a tiny chunk rather than do a whole hysterectomy. The bad thing is that this is still a major operation in which Alyssa would have to be uncouncious and I wouldn't be allowed in the room, and that would be the birth of our daughter. We don't want her to come out with nobody to hold her and nobody to hear her cry. Plus, a pregnant woman has 20% of her blood in her uterus and there's risk of bleeding out. We left really upset, to say the least.

We're going back in 3 weeks to see if that little spot looks any clearer. With luck, it wont be so serious that they can't try a normal c-section anyway (in which Alyssa could be concious and I could be there), and just have everything else at the ready. That's what we're hoping for. If not, they'll have to do it early to get Freya out before more progresses and so we'd have a baby in the NICU. We're trying to stay optimistic, but we've left almost every OB appointment of the last 2 terms of prenancy with bad news...

In other news, we did have some fun over the weekend. Alyssa, Dad, and I took Odin to the Scandinavian festival in Junction city. It was pretty cool; music, dancing, tons of good food. In fact, the only downside was the aepleskiters. It's a tradition there ever since the festival started and it's apparently the whole reason anybody goes to the festival. They're small, golfball-sized pastries that people wait in line for over an hour to get (and I had to as well). What sucks is that when I bit into one it was basically a german pancake/waffle type thing which I'd had at my mother's house every weekend growing up, and I had just made for myself that morning! So I waited in line for an hour with everybody telling me that I wouldn't regret it and I get up there and it's nothing special. I guess everbody else doesn't make that too often, but I have german pancakes almost every weekend.

Cake and Sharing

Despite all the parties Odin has been to, and all the times we've brought home cupcakes or tiramasu, Odin hadn't really tried cake (even on his own birthdays) until this evening when we were out for a walk and gave him a slice of the angle-food cake we'd bought for my birthday. As soon as he had a bite, he inhaled the rest and really loved it.

In other news, we've done up Odin's room a bit by getting him so Thomas the Tank Engine stickers that can be re-applied as many times as you want. We followed his explicit instructions as to their various locations and now his walls are nicely decorated. We also cleaned off his toy wall and moved most of it into an organized array in the closet so that he can share that wall with Freya. We moved her pack-and-play into his room and there's space still for the dresser we want to get her. Of course, she wont be sleeping in it for some months after she's born, but we wanted to get Odin used to the idea and he seems to really like it.

We've finally managed to get Alyssa's music up and running. It's on the social networking site Facebook for the time being because they allow us to store and play the songs for free. I'm not sure if you have to have an account to listen or not, but when we get a chance, we'll also store the songs in another location that should be easier to listen to or download from.

Alyssa Aska | Promote Your Page Too


Alyssa's planning on using her time off this summer to finish a portfolio and start looking for studios and production companies who want to hire her.

I've changed my classes around a bit lately. My major requires me to take two history courses that are only offered in alternating years, so I need to stay an extra year. I had planned on doing second-year Latin, but since I am staying an extra year, I'm starting this fall with first-year Greek and then next year I'll take second-year in whichever of those two I like more, or both, and I also plan to start first-year Italian in that second year. I'm also focusing my studies on some Scandinavian culture and history to link to the idea I have for my Thesis in the history or Rome (more on that later).

Progress, kinda

Alyssa's placenta has been low for a while, and our OB keeps taking pictures to see if it's moving. So far, not enough. It's not over her cervix which is good because that almost forces a c-section (we want to do a VBAC), but it's still not high enough. Also, it seems to be settling on her old c-section scar which is what's making it stay in place. This can mean that it might not move much more, and worse, that if she does need the c-section, the placenta can end up in the scar or in the cut and get caught. This is very dangerous and can cause the need for a major surgery; an OR with prepped blood transfusions and multiple surgeons and nurses, rather than just the standard c-section crew. In dire circumstances, it can also mean she'd have to have her uterus removed if they can't get it out safely.

It left us with a sour taste in our mouths, but the doc said he doesn't think that's going to happen and he's having a specialist take more pictures to make absolutely sure. We'll see how it goes.

Locomotives Anonymous

So Odin has a habit classified as an addiction; his Thomas the Tank Engine wooden railway trains. These trains are interfering with his family and social life, as well as his health. He frequently avoids us to play with the and he has lately not eaten meals, taken naps, or gone to bed nicely because he gets distracted and would prefer to play with them. It's beyond the level of a normal 2-year-old, it's gone too far.

On another note, we're taking him to the doctor tomorrow because he keeps complaining about his back for some reason. It might just be because he wants a back-rub, but it's been consistent in it's location so we're just checking while we ask about behavioral stuff.

We took Odin to Unity School today. It's the preschool he'll be attending and we've been looking into it for months. We got all the paperwork and by Monday he'll be signed up to go starting September 8th. Alyssa and I will be out of school by that time so we'll have 3 weeks of summer with Odin going to school all day. We're already lamenting his absence and it hasn't even happened yet.

Fun times

We went hangin' out at Brandy and Jon's place yesterday and Odin got to play it up with Ryder and June. Tons of fun. They all played in a kiddie pool and threw things around the yard and had a great time. We also got invited to Jon's birthday dinner which was very nice.

Brandy totally snapped this candid shot of Alyssa and it's one of the most beautiful pictures I've seen of her (along with a few others in our albums).

From Random Shots 8/1

Woohoo

Ever since Odin got back from Portland a week ago, he keeps saying "woohoo" to everything, which I suspect he got from his nana.....

We had an OB appointment last Friday and got some very cute pictures of Freya's face. She looks a lot like Odin. Unfortunately we also discovered that Alyssa's low line placenta is still very low. This causes one to usually need a c-section whereas we were hoping for a vbac natural birth. It's got us pretty shaken up but all we can do for now is wait and see if it gets any higher. Our OB suspects that it has attached near her previous c-section scar, which is common, but it does have a chance of lifting up. We hope it does.

In lighter news, we went (window) shopping for baby stuff over the weekend and found some things we like. We looked at strollers and cribs mostly, but we ended up at a local place called Fletcher's which had everything we wanted in one place, so we made a registry there. The items we want the most are the stroller and the crib, but we also added a really nice daiper bag, some cute clothes, a high-chair, a mattress, bedding, and other interesting things. Due to the high quality of their merchandise, a lot of it is a little expensive, but it's really nice stuff and we like it a lot. If anyone plans to help us get something, a small gift card to the place would do fine. Either way, we're going to end up getting it all ourselves because we really like what we picked out.

A name....

We've decided on a name for our daughter (for the time being);

Freya

In Norse Mythology (which is where we got Odin's name), Freyja is the goddess of love, beauty, and fertility, among other things. It just seemed to fit for us, and because our daughter's will have Alyssa's surname, Aska, both names seemed to go well together. Our next choice after that is Alexa but that might become her middle name if we don't choose Organa or any of the other middle names we've come up with.

Ah the fun

We went to Distant Worlds up in Seattle this weekend. OMG that was awesome. Uematsu-san actually cam down into the audience and sat down like 7 rows ahead of us. Jeremy Soule was there about 5 rows ahead of us. It was a really awesome concert, and they did a surprise One Winged Angel at the end. We had a good time going to the EMP/SFM up there too. I was two inches and one pane of glass away from the actuall guitar Jimi Hendrix used! We also saw the famous sequin glove worn my Michael Jackson and the devices that Spock, Kirk, and Bones carried in the orriginal series.

We left Friday morning-ish and dropped Odin off with Mom to stay the night while we saw the concert, then we came back Saturday to hang out and stay the night so we wouldn't have to do all the driving in one day. We ended up getting there pretty late so we didn't have a lot of time to go around doing a lot of stuff, but it was nice for Mom to let us have a place to sleep.

When I left for school (there now), our friend Brandy (who married us) was at our place giving us our first appointment for her Doula services. She's going to help us out with the pregnancy and birth, and all the afterwards stuff I think.

OBF symposium

I guess it's not open to the public. So nevermind. :(

OBF Composers' Symposium

Alyssa is having a piece performed in the Oregon Bach Festival Composers' Symposium. It is called "A Fate Forsaken" and is a sequel to "An Odyssey" played at her Composition Recital earlier this year. Unfortunately, the notice is rather short (I am repeatedly impressed with the coordinator's organizational and administrative skills) and it is scheduled for For Wednesday, July 1st (tomorrow) at the Beall Concert Hall at 10am. There will be other performances besides hers, of course. If you're in the area and want to attend, come on over. I'm not sure what the admission price is, or if it's free, but it will be very cool.

Sick

Alyssa and I got the vomiting virus that Odin had and both went to the ER unable to stop throwing up everything we'd eaten and then yellow bile when there was nothing left. Luckily, they pumped us full of fluids and sent us home with some anti-nausea meds. Odin is fine now, and we are doing much better.

Really sick

Poor Odin is really sick right now.

He had been having diarrhea for a while and we thought it was the introduction of new foods that he was allergic to. We made a doctor appointment for today and this morning, though he hadn't had anything but water (he wasn't hungry for some reason), he threw up a bit. Then when we got him out of the car at the doctor's office, he did another 3 times, all clear like water because that was all he'd had. We took him in and she said it was nothing serious and ordered the blood test for food allergies we had requested. He had his blood drawn without even a fuss, he watched them poke his arm and draw it out and thought it was really cool. When we got home, we fed him a tiny bit and he threw up a few more times so now he's home with Alyssa while I'm in class (I'm writing this during the half-time break), and we're not giving him anything for a little while.

On the plus side, his potty training is going well. He has had the last 5 nights without wetting the bed and he's been wearing underwear for a few days instead of diapers. We only have accidents if he gets distracted by toys or something, otherwise he remembers to tell us he has to go and every morning I take him out of bed and he says he needs to pee so we do. He's even started using the toilet for his bowel movements.

I'm getting a text from Alyssa that says he's getting worse so I better go call her....

Potty Training

Odin is having a hard time with his potty training right now. Its hard to explain, but basically he just wont do it right now. We've got a number of reasons why, and a few solutions, but for now we're going to back off and focus on getting his bed-time routine back to what it was so he's sleeping good.

Music

For those of you who wanted to know, yes we did get the mp3 recordings of Alyssa's four-movement composition "An Odyssey" at her recital. I'm just looking for a way to put them online for the moment, but if you want a copy, just email me and I'll get you one. (If you don't have my email, comment this post with yours (or your address) and I'll send it to you.)

Potty Training

Well, yesterday Odin went number 2 in his potty again. We didn't even ask him to, he just did it on his own. We've been letting him run around the house without a diaper on and it's gotten the idea into his head that if he has to pee he should do it in the potty, we don't ever have any accidents. This is the second time he's pooped in there so we think that now he has the idea that he doesn't have to hold it until he gets a diaper on so that's good.

He's fine

So we got him all checked out, the doctor said it didn't look like anything serious and after observation on meds that helped his nausea and fever, they said we could just take him home and watch him. Of course, now he's running around the clubhouse at our apartment playing with all the toys like he's been fine this whole time, but that's Odin for you.

In other news, I have another name for consideration for our new daughter: Boudica. Alyssa's "step-brother" James recommended this name to us, for the Celtic War Queen found in the history of Europe and Rome. I like this name; it goes well with Aska (we decided early on that our boys would take the surname Hasson and our girls would be Aska, since both Alyssa and kept our surnames when we got married).

ER trip

I'm sitting at a guest computer at Sacred Heart because we had to take Odin to the ER.

 

He had felt tired and asked to cuddle and go to sleep around 8:30, early for him, so we let him. Then at 10:30 we were going to move him to his bed but noticed he was really warm. His temperature was 103.5 under his arm so we took him in and he threw up a lot in the car on the way. Alyssa is with him in the room right now while I get them some food. He seems better but the doctor hasn't seen him yet....

It's a Girl!

Today we went in for an ultrasound at 2pm and found out that the baby we are having is a girl! We're really excited to be having a daughter and we got some great pictures from the ultrasound. It's so weird to think that we're having another baby, and weirder to think that we're having a daughter, but we're really happy and can't wait to meet her! I've already started thinking of names; Aliera is at the top of the list, followed closely by Kiera and Adrea. (Yes, that's Adrea, like Andrea without the "n" so it isn't a typo.)

When we got home, Odin pooped in his potty for the first time! He just sat there and took care of business! We were so proud of him we tried on some underwear and walked to the Chevron to get him some victory snacks, but he peed in the underwear. Hehe.

Out of contact

We've been moving and we haven't been able to get online.

Alyssa and I had a wonderful time on her birthday Sunday night. Odin went out of town with Grandma Paula to Roseburg so we got to sleep in. We missed him so much! He came back with a bandage on the full length of his arm and when it fell off in the bath and we looked at it, yeah, it's along his whole arm, but it's barely a scratch. Still good that they covered it, but he doesn't even seem to notice.

I have limited time right now, so I'll put more up later!

We're moving! (Againt)

So we got a new apartment.

We moved out of Valley River Court (VRC) to live at McKenna Estates and be close to school. We ended up moving in with Dad because we hated it and it would be cheaper to break the lease and live with Dad relatively free than stay there, plus we could be near dad to help him recover from his upcomming surgery. Still, we've always missed our old neighborhood and regretted leaving. So we were driving around Sunday and had been talking all week about all the nostalgia of the things we liked while living there and had also been discussing asking them if we could move back in September when we were done staying at Dad's. They told us that if we wanted to move in this week, we could sign a year lease for $665/month rather than the standard $850, so we took the deal. Rather than being in our lease through September having graduated in June (next year) and having 3-4 months of uncertain ability to pay rent (Will we get a job right out of college?), we'll be there until June which is when we graduate. It works out better because if we get good jobs we can renew our lease, and if we don't, or get good jobs out of town, we can choose not to renew. The timing is amazing and so is the price. The floor plan and layout of the apartment is identical to our old one, it's just two buildings further down the complex. The view is good, there's plenty of sun on the deck for our plants, and the carpeting is brand new. We're so happy.

Alyssa had her rehersal last night for her composition recital and said the instrumentalists did an amazing job. They barely need more practice and said they loved her piece. I can't wait to hear it.

I've finally finished a song I've been writing on my guitar and I only need to add some lyrics. The other members of my band (Alyssa and Emily) really like it and are eager to try it out. I'm happy with how it's coming along. Maybe I'll upload a small snippet of part of it so others can hear it.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Goats at June's house!

I took Odin over to his friend June's house this afternoon to play. They have huge blackberry overgrowth in their backyard and they want to turn it into a garden and child-friendly play-zone so they borrowed 5 goats from a friend to eat through the yard. All the kids there (June, Odin, and Ryder) had tons of fun playing with each other and feeding the goats. It was great fun!

Tumble Class!

Today around 6pm we took Odin to a tumbling class for kids his age. Its a big, fun room with the whole floor padded full of things to climb on and jump over. A teacher showed him things like cartwheels, somersaults, balancing, and all kinds of fun stuff. He also made friends with this two classmates. There's a couple pictures from the class on the BeenUp2 page.

Odin's potty training has been going really well; if he doesn't have a diaper on (which will be more frequent as the summer days get hotter) then he wont go unless he's at his potty. He even knows how to dump his potty into the real toilet and flush and then wash his hands. Tonight he fell asleep watching a movie with us and didn't have a diaper on so we're going to put him to bed like that. We think that by not having a diaper on, he'll subconsciously know he's not supposed to go yet, just like when he's awake, and maybe he can hold it until he gets up (which will be the first thing we take him to do as soon as he's out of his crib). It may be a long-shot, but the worst that can happen is that we need to wash his sheets. Every kid wets the bed.

Happy Mothers' Day!

To all those mothers out there, happy you day!

And in other news, mother's day has another significance for our family; we are having another child!

Alyssa is about 17 weeks right now and the baby is due October 14th. We'll be finding out the gender June 3rd. I took my time posting it to the blog because I was telling family personally and I wanted to wait for the official announcement until we'd found out the gender, which I had thought would be at our appointment last Wednesday but apparently it's too early so I just figured I'd do it now. I hope for and think it's a girl, but I will be happy with a boy as well. Odin knows there's a baby in Mommy's tummy, and he likes to talk to it and feel her stomach. We're very excited.

Odin's swim classes have been going quite well; he loves the water and he seems natural in it (takes after his dad), and the public pool we take him too features "dive-in movies" where they play movies or cartoons on a big projector while everybody swims.

Alyssa has been busy with her 4-movement composition for her recital coming up on the 26th. (Anyone is invited if they'll be in Eugene that evening.) It's taxing because of the way her scribing program exports each individual instrument, but she'll have it done by tomorrow so they can begin rehearsals.

I've been neglecting my homework, but I managed to pass both my mid-terms so it can't be that bad.

Anyway, we're going to pick up Alyssa from her lab time in a little bit so we can all go to a mothers' day lunch. I should finish cleaning our room and Odin and I will be making her a card!

2-year checkup

We took Odin to the doctor yesterday for his 2-year checkup to find out that he is a very healthy, advanced, and amazing little boy. (We already knew all that.) His percentiles were a little low (5 for height and 35 for weight) but Dr. Dzubay said that was normal, especially considering how long it took me to grow when I was a kid. They gave him a shot and the little trooper didn't even flinch. No crying or anything.

In about an hour we're taking him to "mommy and me" swimming lessons. Alyssa will be in a pool with him and he'll learn to swim!

March for Babies

(It's a little late in the game to be announcing this, but) Alyssa and I are walking in a March for Babies fundraiser tomorrow and we're trying to raise some donations. If you feel like you can help out, that'd be great!

Fun in the Sun

Today, while Alyssa was in class, I took Odin for a 2 hour bike ride! We went everywhere. All I remember is a big blur of pedaling and sweating and pulling.....

We also made s'mores in our backyard! Yummm!!!

Beadspread and sandbox

I took this picture a week or so ago when we bought it for Odin (his new jungle print beadspread):

From New Album 4/19/09 7:30 PM

And this is the Sandbox that Dad bought for him today:

From New Album 4/19/09 7:30 PM

Half of it is a sandbox with shovels and other toys, and the other half is a waterbed for his toy boats to float around. It had an umbrella so he can play in theh sun without getting burnt. (Here's something else cool; when the guy at Toys R Us brought it out, he brought the shipping box which had 2 of them in it, rather than just the 1 table, so we got 1 for free!)

BeenUp2

I might have mentioned this before, but there's this website called BeenUp2 which lets you post pictures from a mobile device, and I use it to snap quick shots of what we're up to.

Checkout what I've BeenUp2!

I've also added a small twitter badge on the side under the chat link which is another fun tool I've been experimenting with for short updates.

Beach and Farm

We've been up to a lot lately. On Wednesday we all drove down to Salem for a Bariatric Surgery orientation seminar for Dad. It was good to take him, he was really encouraged. Yesterday afternoon we and a bunch of friends drove to Florence to take Odin to the beach. Today we went out to a farm and introduced Odin to a few animals!

Beach and Farm 4/18/09

How sick

Odin's fever wasn't going away so we took him to the doctor. Turns out he has double ear infections, again. He was so feverish all day; really warm and sweaty but shivering. I took him in a cold shower and he seems fine now. He's running around the house like his usual self.

Sick

Odin has had a fever for the last few days and tonight is started to get pretty bad so we have to take him to the doctor if it isn't better tomorrow.

Done

So I just got back from finally getting all our stuff out of our old place and doing our walkthrough with the manager. She said it takes about 6 hours for the cleaning service to clean a place the size of our apartment and we get the first hour free. Then it's $18/hour which makes $90 if they take 5 hours, but we have a $250 non-refundable deposit for them to use up so even if there's extra cleaning we'll probably get all of our $500 refundable portion of the deposit back. It feels good to be out and done with it all.

Sad news though, our Wii broke. It wont eject the disc and makes a strange clicking noise like it's jammed or something. We're out of warranty so it'll probably cost to get it fixed.

I'm going to get some food now.

Moving still

Tonight I got almost all of the stuff out of our old place. Tomorrow I'm going to go back and clean for a while. We'll probably head over there around 9 or 10am, and we do the walkthrough with the manager at at 2pm and that'll be it. Now we just have to find a place for all the stuff we brought to Dad's....

What happened yesterday

So we got in the car and couldn't turn the ignition, the wheel wouldn't move at all, and the shifter wasn't budging. I called Geico on a pay phone to set up a tow and when I got back to the car, my mother-in-law called on Emily's phone (who had shown up with Odin at our request) to say her husband recommended attacking the steering wheel, which I did, and that got everything unstuck. What made all this really annoying was that neither of us had our phones so we had to keep taking turns staying with the car and going inside the music building to send texts via email so the car wouldn't get ticketed because we were stuck at an un-paid meter with no pocket change. We did get it working eventually though.

We ended up taking Odin to our favorite restaraunt in town, which we realized we had taken him to on his last birthday as well. We all ate a lot of food and then we took Odin to Yes Man with Jim Carrey (being his favorite person in the world right now) but he only wanted to sit through about half of it and we had to leave.

I'm excited about the party today. We're going to Papa's Pizza again. Same as last year, but he had so much fun anyway, and now he's big enough for all the tubes and stuff in the play area. We got a Chocolate Fudge cake with Peanut Butter Mousse and Chocolate Ganache frosting. I know a lot of the presents he's getting already and it promisses to be a good haul.

Crap

I can't get my key to turn the ignition, the shifter wont budge, and neither will the steering wheel. I'm stuck and I have no working phone, and Alyssa is sitting in the car to keep meter maids from ticketing us.

We can't get to Odin on his birthday....

Happy Birthday Odin!

Wow, 2 years....

On the catwalk

I walked into the house a moment ago and Odin was taking his shirt off. Now he's running naked as fast as he can through the house. He's having a stripping phase.

The other thing he's been doing is feeding his stuffed animals.

Fun times

We had a nice trip up in Portland this weekend. I'm supposed to be doing homework so I'll sum up: Went to see lots of fun places, took Odin to an arcade and the Farmer's Market and Lloyd Center, Uncle Danny came by and had a fun time with him (it was good to see him again), family was impressed by how advanced he is, tons of fun, yadda yadda.

First day of classes yesterday. Alyssa and I have set ourselves up for a somewhat easy term, and moral is high thus far.

I have 3 weeks to get through all of Plato's Republic, so.....

Moved

I haven't been able to write much because Alyssa's computer wouldn't turn on. We can't figure out why, but it's back up now.

We've almost finished moving stuff over to Dad's, there's only a few more boxes worth of stuff, we can get it all in another 2 trips with out van. We didn't even need to rent a truck! Also, since we've still got until the 7th of April, we have plenty of time to clean the old place.

We're trying to enjoy as much vacation as we can despite all the moving. We have a nice neighborhood to walk around in, Dad has all the premium channels so we can watch movies without having to rent them, and soon we'll have our video games hooked up so we can see what they look like in HD!

Anyway, I don't know what else to write about right now, so that's all....

Moving

We're moving in with my dad.

There's a lot of good reasons. We'll save a lot of money is a big one. Dad will charge us less than half of what we're paying now, so we can put a lot of money aside, which will really help. Also, we'll have a live-in babysitter to help us watch Odin whenever we have lots of homework or want to go on a date. Odin's Grandma Paula got him a tricycle for his birthday (don't tell him, he hasn't opened it yet!) and our current neighborhood is way too dangerous to let him ride it around, Dad's neighborhood is great for a kid, and it's also close to a park at a middle school and all the old places we liked to walk to at our old place.

Another good reason is that we can be around Dad and help him recover after he has his surgery. He'll need a lot of support and probably some help staying on his post-op diet and heath regiment so it'll be good for us to be there. Also, we think it will be really beneficial to Odin to be surrounded by his extended family.

Odin's birthday is coming up and we still haven't figured out what to do.....

Another ear infection

Odin got sick with all the rest of us a week or so back, but he got over it. Now he's sick again and this time it's really bad. He coughs all night and has a really runny nose, he can't sleep and sometimes he has a hard time breathing. He also got an ear infection last week ad finished the antibiotics the other day, but when we took him in to be looked at for being sick, his ear infection had gotten worse and spread to both ears! We have to go pick up a concentrated medicine to help him out now.

We had to go sell our laptop. The older, slightly broken one, not the new one. We got a new one because the parts of the broken one that were broken were essential for her homework, so we took out a loan to get the new one. I used the old one because I didn't care about the broken parts, but we needed the money. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Last week I actually got better than a "D" on a Latin test. I might pass Latin this term! (I didn't last term.)

I've been chatting with Alyssa's dad, Dennis, for a little bit, which is great because I've never met the man and she hasn't seen him in almost a decade. Now that we have the car, we're trying to make a trip out there over the summer so he can meet Odin and me.

Well, I'm supposed to be heading to class now.

Catching up

Not a lot is going on here except tons of homework to catch up with all the sick leave we've been taking. It's murder getting through it all, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Jake is coming down for the weekend and he'll be staying here. That should be fun. Also, since we have the car now we can roam around and do stuff instead of being stuck at home.

Well, I should be reading some homework right now, so I'll write more later.

Sick

We've all been sick around here. I was out of school for a week, I had to go to the ER at one point. Largely that's because I donated blood so I was anemic and had a hard time fighting it off. Alyssa got it first, then me, now Odin has it. We took him to the doctor today and she said he had a really intense ear infection. We got him some antibiotics and he seems to be in a much better mood now that he's napped all day.

News and news and news

We took Odin to see Dr. Dzubay today. Last night he was crying and saying "ow" whenever he moved and this morning he just kept sobbing in pain and we asked him what was wrong and he said it was his ear. Dr. Dzubay said he has no ear infections so it was probably pressure from his cold while being on his side. Other than that, he seems extremely great, she said.

I just got done eating a pizza I made from scratch. I made it for a mid-term in my Ancient Foods course, where you make a pizza like ancient Romans would have, but adding flour and water together every day and watching it grow and letting the bacteria grow or something like that. (I didn't understand the science.) It turns into a sourdough and I made pizza crust with my own toppings.

I've been driving around a lot and I'm going to take my test on Wednesday to get my license. Paula is giving us her minivan and we've already got it insured under Alyssa and Me for full coverage! We got the whole shebang and guess how much it costs us each month? Only about sixty bucks! We got some huge discounts because Paula has been a member so long and Alyssa and I have high GPAs and wouldn't use it too often because we bus to school.

Anyway, more later.

Changes to our house

I don't write too often anymore because the keyboard at home is broken and I never get enough time at school to do it, but right now I'm putting off an assignment so here I am....

Our roommates moved out last Monday. Now we get the whole upstairs. The bedroom isn't that big but the bathroom is bigger than the bedroom if you can believe it. We bought a nice new glass-top L-shaped desk and moved our bookshelves and computer stuff and Alyssa's piano up there. Now it's a nice study for us to relax in and do our homework at an actual desk, rather than sitting on the bed. We just need to get some nice seating up there. It's also left our room kinda empty, but it looks nice that way. It's not so crowded and now the only thing in our room besides the bed and clothes is all Odin's stuff so he can mess it up as much as he wants.

It's also really relieving for us and Odin to let Odin just run around the house as much as he wants. He can go play in any room instead of being stuck in our room all the time. You could tell right away that his stress levels went way down. All his toys are scattered about the living room so it actually looks like a family lives there. It's quite heart warming because it used to be cold, empty, and dark all the time. Now we can use as much hot water in the shower as we want, leave our dishes out until the next day if we like, and watch movies comfortably on our couch. When I get home, I'm going to charge the camera and put up a video tour of our place for those of you reading this who haven't been there.

Alyssa and I decorated the bathroom upstairs as our own personal happy area so the bathroom downstairs was customized as Odin's Throne Room. He's got his own towels and his training toilet is in there along with his toothbrush and comb and what not. It's really cute. There wasn't enough room for all the stuff for all three of us before, and since that was the downstairs bathroom, it was also the public one. Now we've got the huge one upstairs for us and Odin gets to use the one downstairs all to himself, except when we have company.

Well, I said I wasn't doing homework because I didn't need to because I'm ahead in every other class. I don't have homework that is necessary right now but I could do tomorrow's homework so I don't get behind again. I think I'll go do that right now....

Pictures from the Portland trip

We took a trip to Portland last weekend and I've put up some pictures with a few extra from other times.

Portland Trip plus extra 1/7/09 7:11 PM

Just a bit

Only a few minutes before I should do a little homework so I thought I'd post this:

Lissa and Lil' Peanut

This is the site for our next little nephew and Odin's next cousin. They're having some birth complications and the baby will almost certainly be premature.

New

Well, I'm at a computer for a bit before I have to go to class so I thought I'd put something in here.

We just spent the weekend in Portland visiting family. Staying with Mom was fun; she brought out my old Brio train sets from when I was a kid for Odin to play with since he's obsessed with them now. He even had a train outfit to wear while playing. (I'll post lots of pictures soon. Speaking of which, those of you who have some for me -- I'm looking at you Mom and Grandma -- better send 'em! I know you're reading this!) We had fun going around to shopping malls and taking Odin to play with things and picking out lots of toys. We did some shopping for ourselves, and I splurged a little more than I should have, but that's what life's about. You only live once, right?

We also met Grandma and Marje and had fun eating out, which Odin slept mostly through. They brought him some really nice toys and clothes and he paid them back by being cute.

We got in late last night and this morning we had to get up early to come to school and get our books before class. I better head there now. I wanted to post more but that will have to wait until later.