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Thursday, January 31, 2008

Night, Nights

For anyone who knows us or has had young children, you know how it is to keep track of time frames. At our house, we keep track of time frames by how many "night nights" it is until the event in question. So to honor that I will post this post all in terms of night nights.

In two night nights, there are two important things in our house.

  • These people arrive at our house


  • We have a birthday party with this theme for Chase



In five night nights, we will


  • We will leave here



  • We will fly to here

In six night nights





  • This little person will turn 5 years old - I can't believe it!

  • We will arrive here, change planes



  • Fly to here





  • Board this ship





  • Start our cruise to these 5 five places

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Baby Raiden's First Two Weeks

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Organization


I feel so refreshed and am getting excited for our trip. Yesterday, I got a haircut and a Mary Kay facial so I feel pampered. I have a pedicure next week (compliments of Heather as a thank you for throwing the shower in November). The suitcases are out to pack. The shore excursions are booked. Our documents and luggage tags are here and we leave in 19 night nights (as Chase would put it).

Well, while Mom was here she kind of jump started me in getting organized. I had already started purging some of the overabundance of "stuff" about Thanksgiving time - which is a continued process, just ask Mom as she and Melissa have reaped the benefits of it in fabric alone.

While I was recovering Mom got a bunch of clothes of mine folded and organized by pile and now I am in the midst of purging clothes to get them all put away and pack for our trip at the same time so I only have to handle all of my clothes once.

We hired a painter the other day and he starts on Monday to paint our bedroom, our bathroom and the hall bathroom. The hall bathroom AKA Mamma's bathroom even has wallpaper that had to be taken down and the wall was not texturized prior to wallpaper placement so they will texturize it too prior to painting. All of the walls that I have not repainted in the house are painted in flat wall white paint that just sucks up the light and it is the original one coat of paint from when the house was built 15 years ago so it is in desperate need of refreshing.


We got our room dinged out to get the computer into the playroom for the kids which they love. We also got a new entertainment center corner unit for the TV in the living room that gives a closed confined space to put movies, games and puzzles.

If feels so good to be on a roll to getting life more organized and I can already feel the increased productivity that being organized enables. What a fun way to start the year. The painting will be done before we leave on our trip too!

Today's big plan is getting Chase's birthday invitations done and in the mail. I spent yesterday stamping return address labels with decorative things to cover Hershey Nugget candies with for a baby shower that Mom is throwing next weekend. I also hammered out 40 thank you cards as a gift for the shower. Those are all boxed up with other miscellaneous items in a flat rate priority mail box (love those boxes as I can stuff them full, full, full for a flat rate - if you go to usps.com you and order a case of them an they will send them to you free of charge - I have a case of both sizes in the basement so when I need one, they are right here and I go to usps.com and even print my own postage for them - very handy).

Have a good day all!

Almost forgot to mention that I also got to spend the morning yesterday with Heather and Raiden. Heather got to take a relaxing shower and pamper herself a bit and I got to feed Raiden, get him dressed for his dr. appt and then we had a photo session with my camera to get a good picture for his announcements. It was such a fun morning and quiet for all involved. He did great at his dr. appt and is now up to 9 lbs 12 ounces! He is a big boy!

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Mommy Morning

After a busy day yesterday rearranging and getting the extra computer in the playroom for the kids and the webcam set up on it, it is a day for Mommy. The kids do appreciate the computer in there as they love to talk to Mamma and Papa on the webcam and were so excited that I got it done yesterday. Now they are anxious for me to get them set up to play games at PlayhouseDisney.com as they LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that and daddy and I are tired of being their desks so they can play on our laptops.

This morning, Mackenzie and I are going over to Jill's to play with Jill and Rylee. Mackenzie is very excited and even decided she needed to dress in a dress for the occasion. She just loves Rylee and they play really well together for the ages they are (Rylee is 18 months and Kenzie is 40 months). Jill did some fun stuff with stamp group on Manson yesterday so I am anxious to see those and just to have some "big people" time when I can talk about something other than Backyardigans, Ratatouille, Mickey Mouse, Pooh Bear, etc. Sometimes my brain feels like oatmeal and needs adult time.

Tonight is the big local basketball rivalry of Chelan vs. Brewster and this time it is here in Chelan. Dave will be joining Dennis Rahm on golakechelan.com to broadcast the games. Rachael is coming over to watch the kids so I can go to and watch the game. These are usually good games between these two teams so it should be a fun night.

Well, that is my plan for the day and it is a beautiful sunny day with the sun reflecting off our two plus feet of snow collected everywhere since Christmas.
A fun time was had by all. Rylee is now wearing one of the dresses that Mamma made for Kenzie - in fact the one Kenzie wore to Papa's retirement party.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Start of another week

Well, it is a quiet Sunday at home today. The kids have taken naps and Dave is taking his now. We are not getting any snow today, which is fine as we have LOTS still to get rid of before we need any more.

I finally got to go see Raiden yesterday for the first time since the day he was born. We got a good picture of us together. He is such a cutie when he is happy but when he is mad he sure can get that lip out there! This is the best picture of his lip quivering fit. He certainly has the red-head temper too. Heather has to find a way to get his schedule changed as he likes to be awake from 11 pm to 4 am - yuck!

The kids got to go see him too yesterday and there are cute pics of them. This was the first time Chase had seen him. He wanted to hold him for a minute but that was it. Now Mackenzie is another story. She understands that she is his Aunt so she talks to him about it being OK as this is Aunt Mackenzie. So cute. Whenever we get new pics, I have to print them off for her to put in her baby Raiden book.
Well, that is about all for today. Hope you all have a good week!

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Doctor Visit today


Yeepee! I saw the internist today and he let me stop on the oxygen and the nebulizers!!! I was sooo excited. He asked me which company needed to pick up the oxygen at my house and I told him I would leave it on the porch for anyone that wanted it as I didn't want it any more! He will do a chest xray in 2 weeks to rule out any scarring from this and to get a good clean baseline but has released me otherwise. I see the neurosurgeon 3 weeks from today at which time I hope to shed the hard collar, get my driving rights back and be able to start with only the soft collar just in time for our trip. Now I just have to work on my endurance as I am pretty tuckered out from a long day today.



The kids had another great afternoon yesterday with Daddy time as Mom and I worked on dinner stuff. They like to sit in his recliner but they don't make a recliner for 3 people so it gets a little tight as this picture shows.






Dave went to see Raiden again last night and got some more good pictures of him. Josh is sure proud of him and is taking to the Dad thing very well. Josh, Heather and Raiden were pictured on the front page of the local paper The Lake Chelan Mirror in the January 9, 2008 edition for being the first baby/parents of 2008. It was a nice article. If I can get it to scan well, I will post it here for all to see but I will work on that this weekend.






Chase & Kenzie watched Ratatouille one more time with Mamma this afternoon as she goes home tomorrow. We all know that movie very well as it is the current favorite at our house. Chase has even chosen to have a Ratatouille birthday party this year. Hard to believe it he will be 5 years old in less than a month. The kids are currently taking a bath under the supervision of Mamma and having one last "snowstorm" before she leaves. A snowstorm is what they call it when powdering themselves after a bath as the visibility in the bathroom gets to be about 6 inches with all of the powder flying. Chase doesn't use the powder puff to puff the powder on but rather just shakes the puff in the air and turns around for even distrubution in its landing on him. You do not need air freshener in that bathroom for days, all you have to do is stomp on the bathmat once or twice and the air is plenty fresh. Oh, the memories they create with Mamma.


Papa is sick with his chest cold again so he is anxiously awaiting the return of Mom to help him as he got put back on on antibiotics again today and hopes to kick this one for good! We hope so too as he has taxit services to render for the kids while we are on our trip. Mamma doesn't like driving in the snow so I think Papa's primary task will be driving kids and Mamma wherever they need to go.

Well, my jammies and fuzzy slippers are calling me to find them and a hot cup of tea.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

On the Mend

Good morning everyone!

I am up and about. The kids (yes both finally) are back to school and the house is very quiet. Mom and I have offered to run around the house screaming for one another if it feels too quiet but neither of us have had that urge yet. Mackenzie has taken the opportunity to enjoy some one on one time with Daddy, Mommy and Mamma while Chase is in school as he started back a week earlier than she did. Yesterday, I caught this shot of Kenzie enjoying games on playhousedisney.com on Daddy's laptop while Daddy was snoozing. It seemed to work for the two of them clearly. She was ready to go back to school though as she didn't even finish her pancake for breakfast as she was ready to go!!

I am feeling quite a bit better today. I was up all day yesterday and today I got lunches ready for school and got Kenzie dressed and I was showered and dressed myself by 8:30 am. Not bad in comparison to a week ago. I see the internist tomorrow and I have no reason to believe that I won't get to be off the oxygen then. I am done with nebulizer treatments and am breathing much better. The recovery for my neck will be the same 12 weeks regardless so will have the lovely brace for a while and then a soft collar but at least I can breathe and have energy today. Now I am not ready to run a marathon but the idea of being up all day at home and taking care of myself and helping with little ones does not seem to be a daunting task at this point.

Mom flies home on Friday. Chase has gotten wise to that so yesterday he was too "sick" to go to school but we beat his game as he had to go to bed for a nap instead of school. Last night Mom commented that she was going to go call Papa and Chase ran to her and said "yes, you can call Papa because now you have 3 night nights left here but after you call Papa, you will have 6 night nights here". He could remember that when Mamma said on Saturday that she was calling Papa that as soon as she got off the phone that meant Mamma was staying for a few more days as that was the day Dad sent her meds so she could stay till Friday. Funny how that little mind works so fast. Mom told Dad about that last night and he was not so keen on the idea as Chase was.

I am feeling enough better that I have started my to do list in preparation for our trip (which we leave on in less than 4 weeks) and am ordering tickets for Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and narrowing down the selection for a Broadway show while in NYC. I am getting excited. We did select our on-shore excursions for the cruise before my surgery and heard from the travel agent that she has our cruise documents that she will deliver today so it is getting to be so real. Now I just have to be a good girl and stay on the mend. Thanks so much to all for thoughts and prayers.

My niece Rachel is 3 months old already - hard to believe. They had family pictures and her 3 months pictures taken the other day and I just LOVE this one. I love the grin on her face like - I got you!! She is so much bigger than her sister was at this age it is hard to believe the difference. They had a great family picture to and I had to share.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

The Latest

Well, since I have posted, I have had my neck surgery and am on the right road to recovery this time. The surgery went well on Wednesday but on Thursday when the physical therapist got me up to walk in the hall way, I got sick and threw up and aspirated some of it into my lungs. That resulted in a busy afternoon with lots of tests to eventually find out that I had aspirated into my lungs. I ended up on oxygen (which I still have at home at least until I see the internist on Thursday) and nebulizer treatments. I also had to stay at the hospital until Friday afternoon. Thank goodness for grandmas though, Mom got on the phone to Dad first things Saturday and Dad got Mom's meds sent FedEx to get here Monday so she can stay a few days longer. She was to leave on Monday and now is tentatively set to leave on Friday pending my appt on Thursday. My neck is not what is bother me as much as the pneumonia from aspirating. Although i do feel a lot better here at home. The picture is not too glamorous but someday I wil want to scrapbook this experience (I think).








Baby Raiden (as Mackenzie calls him) is growing like a weed. Obviously I don't get to see him right now but Dave went to see him last night and got a couple of really good pictures of the little guy. He is quite a cutie we think. It is hard to believe he is only 5 days old in these pictures.



Hope everyone's new year is going well. Chase is thrilled to be back in school and Kenzie is anxiously awaiting her turn to go back to school this Wednesday. Mommy is focusing on recovery and counting the three weeks until she can drive again.

Happy 2008!!

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Raiden Xavier Rogge is here!










Well, the moment we have all been waiting for finally arrived. Heather was put in the hospital yesterday afternoon at about 4 to induce her. After a long night and not much luck, they did a C-section early this morning as he was too big for her to deliver. Mommy, Daddy and baby are doing well as you can see in the pictures here! First baby of the New Year at Chelan Hospital - don't know about the county yet!







VITAL INFO

Born 1/1/2008 3:13 a.m.

Weight 9 lbs 3 3/4 oz
Length 23 inches

Red Hair!!!
He shares a birthday with his late Great Grandpa Rogge!