Mmmm, Delicious!

This is Jubilee's new phrase. I have no idea where she got it. I dont think "delicious" is in my daily vocabulary. But she has picked it up anyway. At first I really couldnt tell what she was saying. Then Mom told me that while outside playing at her house, Jubilee picked up a rock and pretended to eat it, then rubbed her belly exclaiming, "mmmm, delicious!" So now everything is delicious.

Speaking of delicious, while at Baylee's birthday party today, Aunt Bonnie whipped out the chocolate fountain of goodness. I ate chocolate covered bananas and strawberries until I was SICK! It was wonderful. Janet grilled some steak and chicken kabobs and we played Golf, (the card game). It was a great afternoon even if I felt like I needed to be rolled back to the grocery getter.

When we got back to the house, Jubilee and I worked off some of our meal by dancing to the CD Aunt Holly made for her. Its got some great songs on there like the alphabet, the Dora song, Blues Clues, and You Are My Sunshine. Jubilee has learned to work the Kareoke machine and wanders thru the songs until she finds the one she wants. We dont usually get to hear more than half of each song,...but she dances the whole time. The exception to that would be You Are My Sunshine. When this song plays she comes running to me, arms outstretched, "MOMMYMOMMYMOMMY!" I pick her up and she lays her head on my shoulder while we sing and dance to the entire song. After its over, she is right back to shaking her booty and flipping thru the songs. But its so sweet that for that 2 mins, she is quiet and perfectly happy to be cuddled tight.

My Icky Eye: Good News! No Cats!

I had my cat scan early this morning at the Ghettosville General Hospital. Mom met me there and took Jubilee to the cafeteria for breakfast. Im told she entertained the entire cafeteria. I hope entertained is the right word.

The good news is, there was nothing in the preliminary report on my cat scan. There was something funky about my sinus's, but that has nothing to do with my eye. So its good news that there are no blocked blood vessels and no tumors. Which I pretty much knew. I wasnt worried about this at all.

But what that means is we're back at square one with my icky eye. Now that Im weaning off the drops, the redness has already come back. Even tho Ive only weaned off one drop a day. We still have no clue what it is. But....we do know its nothing scary! YAY Im anticipating another doctor visit this coming week. We'll see what happens.

After the eye doctor I ran errands with Jubilee and Troy. I had lots of places to go...grocery shopping, bill-paying,... but because Troy had tagged along, we also had to stop at the car stereo shop. *insert man grunting noise here* Jubilee had fun dancing to the music in the display room and soon she had a small audience to perform for. She danced, pretended to sneeze, and said HIIIIIIIIIIIII! to everyone. The sneezing thing is fairly new. Its very dramatic and drawn out: "aaah...aaaaahhhhh...AAAAAH.....AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH... CHOOOOOOooooooooooooooooo!" If we are lucky enough for her to be holding a tissue to her nose during the fake sneeze, she opens it up for us to examine and tells us, "BOOGIES!"

After the car stereo shop we headed to Wally's and bought exciting things like soap and paper plates. By the time we got home Jubilee was exhausted from a long morning and a somewhat fitfull night. She took a LONG nap,...and so did I.

My Icky Eye: The Saga Continues

I went into the eye doctor this morning for my 3rd biopsy. She came in and the first thing she said was, "I dont think we should do another biopsy." Whew! Great! Then she said, "I think you should have a cat scan." *blinks*

I asked if she was concerned, she said no...but its unusual for her not to have a diagnosis. She said she is frustrated, for me and for herself, that we dont know whats going on yet. So, to make sure there is nothing behind my eye blocking blood vessels, or putting pressure on the eye, I need to have a cat scan. I do that tomorrow morning.

In the meantime, I get to wean myself off these prednisone drops. YAY She said that by taking them we are diminishing the redness and inflammation, but also could be masking any other symptoms that would be helpful to us. So Im happy to get rid of the icky taste in my mouth, but be prepared for when you see me because my eye will look awful and watery. ....and probably no make up. Another reason to be cautious when looking at me directly. ;)

She asked if there was anything else she should know. I told her my sister had a pseudo brain tumor and asked if thats the sort of thing she needed to know. She said yes and asked me all sorts of questions about Holly and how she is doing now. BTW, if you dont know what a pseudo-tumor is, its basically where a part of your body responds as if a tumor is there, but its not. In Holly's case it was in her brain and putting pressure on her eyes, giving her double vision and extremely painful headaches. Holly had spinal taps to release the pressure of the so-called "tumor" and has not had any problems since.

I will keep you all updated so keep tuning in at the same Icky Eye time on the same Icky Eye channel!!

A Bandage Fixes Everything

Jubilee's newest interest are bandaids. It started a while ago when she got a little scrape on her hand and I put a plain tan colored bandaid on it. She was very proud of her "Ow" and showed it to anyone that would look.

This one instance went from that one occurance to full blown out obsession. In fact, even the Easter Bunny brought Jubilee Dora bandages at Mi-ma's house. Mi-ma has totally fed this bandaid fixation. We have Dora bandages, Hello Kitty bandages, Clifford Bandages, and Rainbow-colored bandages. (We just recently ran out of the Boohbah bandages.) Now, whenever Jubilee gets a little scrape, poke, tickle, (real or imaginary), she wants a bandage. She has gone to great lengths to get a bandage. Its not unusual for Jubilee to come running toward you with her eyes covered, the biggest pout on her face, crying in the most dramatic, (and fake) fashion, saying between sobs, "Saaaaad... Jujus saaad! BANDAGE!" Of course the bandage fixes everything.

Wouldnt that be wonderful if that applied to real life. Imagine the heartache that could be forgotten if a bandage could fix everything like it does for Juju.

My Icky Eye: Another Biopsy?

First of all, thanks to everyone who has called and emailed with concerns and prayers about my eye. I feel a little guilty that I worried you guys because I really dont think its that bad. Im not worried about it at all and thats the main reason I blog about it. Mostly because I find it sort of ridiculous. Just one of those weird things that happen in life. I think its just an infection and its a fluke thing. I truly think that eventually, its just going to go away.

Ok, so that being said, I heard from my eye doctor yesterday morning. Actually, I heard from her receptionist who called and said, "We got your results back and Betsy would like to see you on Thursday." I said, "So I have to wait until thursday to know the results?" Considering Im on week 4 of waiting for the biopsy results, she put Dr. Betsy on the phone. I asked what the results showed, and I could repeat all the doctor mumbo-jumbo, but basically the word is: Inconclusive. She said I had "markers" of lymphoma or leukemia but nothing in my biopsy showed it was positive for either of those. What does that MEAN?? Well, it means another biopsy. Going in thursday at 8am to have that done. *sigh*

In the meantime I am still taking Indomycin and Pred-forte drops to minimize the redness. If I keep up and not miss any drops during the day, it works. However, if I miss any the redness comes back within hours.

I will keep you updated as I know more!

Tell Me a Secret

Any secret. It can be about you, someone you know, something you wish for, something you hate, someone you love, ANYTHING. As long as its a secret. I promise your secret will not go any further than my eyes and I will take your secret to my grave. I give you my word. You can send it to me anonymously, or with your name on it...doesnt matter. I will only read it and delete it. I promise. You can send it to this email: stacik212@hotmail.com No one checks that email but me.

The De-evolution of Speech

In my teens and 20s, I found certain things about children and their parents annoying. If I was on the phone with a busy mom who constantly had to put our conversation on hold because she had to scold her child, I was irritated. I evenly scoffed at the wild child in the grocery store and the child who peeked under the bathroom stall while their mommy was using the fluffy next mine. I was guilty of uttering the words, "My child will NEVER do that!"

Now that Ive grown up, (sorta) and have a child of my own, I have much more patience for those little annoyances that children bring. I even realize my child quite possibly could do those things I promised myself she would never do. However, I am finding that I am doing some of those things that I once found annoying - and happily so.

Jubilee has certain words for certain things that sound either nothing like, or somewhat like the correct pronunciation. That does not stop everyone around her from pronouncing it like she does. For example:
Thank You: Dang You
Uncle Jason: Unc
Dora: Do-Dah
Food of any kind: Num-a-num
Booney (the dog): Boo-NAY
Dylan: "D"
And many others that have leaked their way into my vocabulary. .....and not only mine! My mom, Troy's, and even Dylan's. We're all reverting back to toddler hood and talking like Jubilee. Its catchy! Imagine me at the store yesterday and the look on the clerks face when I said, "Dang you" when I left. I know I must do this a lot and I know its annoying, so Im apologizing to you all right now.

I wish I were really techie-like so I could get video of Jubilee on here. We went to the Easter service at our church last Sunday. It was a cantada and Grandma Cookie was in the choir. (Thats Troy's mom.) Jubilee spent the entire hour dancing in the aisle to the music and exclaiming the name of whatever visual scenery was showing up on the giant overhead screen. "bubbles! trees! bunny! man! BOB!" Bob is her special word for Spongebob, and no, he was never in the cantada....but there was some orange and yellow hawaiian flower type things that must have reminded her of Spongebob.

As we left, I was stopped by the man who video taped the choir. He said he didnt get much of the cantada at all and most of his tape was filled with Jubilee dancing. HAHA I guess she stole the show, and thats fine with me!

Trip To The Big City!

Tomorrow I go to Seattle for a doctors appt. We have nothing but shamans and grandmas with odd home remedies in Ghettosville, so anyone needing actual medical attention have to drive the 2.5 hours to get it. As annoying as that might seem to some, I quite like it. Port Angeles is pretty, and I like the idea of raising my daughter in a community like this one, but it is great to get out to the real world now and then.

Im crossing my fingers that I will get to see the studly Jackson Harold if he can get away. Thats always the highlight of my trips to the big city! (Eye-VARS)

I plan on, but not sure if it will work, to drive the farthest possible route around the store Pop Tots. I spent WAAAAAAAY too much money in there last time I was in the City and I cant resist the oodles of punk baby clothes in there. (A baby-sized hand painted Misfits tank top!? TO DIE FOR!)

Still no word from the eye doctor... I will post as soon as I know!

Babys Got Blue Eyes

While I was pregnant, (and even now), I prayed every day that my baby would be healthy and be happy in all of her days. I even got very specific. Ive learned that God loves when you are specific in your prayer. So I got down to the nitty-gritty and prayed about things like her bones, blood, brain, heart and other parts of her body would be healthy. I touched on all the serious ailments I could think of and even some not-so-serious, but I found annoying like being overweight and PCOS. I remember a few times throwing in there at the end, "Oh...and God? It would be kinda cool if she had blue eyes."

The Embarrassment Is Coming

I just know its coming. As Jubilee has gotten older, and as her vocabulary has gotten bigger, I can tell that I am going to be one of those parents that are constantly apologizing to strangers in the store. It started out simple.... a little "HI!" to passersby as they shopped for this and that. But, now, its not that simple. If the stranger doesnt respond with a polite salutation back to Jubilee, she will just assume that they didnt hear her and again repeat, "HI!" - this time louder. Occasionally, we do come across a person who is not all that into saying hello to children they dont know, (altho I cant imagine how anyone can refuse such a cute and friendly face). This doesnt deter her however. To Jubilee this just means you need to say HI as many times as you can get it out of your mouth at the highest volume you can until that person is no longer in your eyesight.

She is most pleased when someone stops and actually says, "Hello! How are you?", to which she always replies, "good!" She also loves when they ask how old she is so she can tell them, "two-two motts!" (22 months) I never taught her that. I think she just hears me say it so often when asked. (I am however trying to teach her to hold up two fingers and say, "Two" since that birthday is coming up soon!) This is usually followed up by her introducing me to the stranger. Thank goodness Im not too shy.

The other day we were shopping and as I was trying to decide what kind of yogurt to buy, I heard Jubilee exclaiming, "NO-MAH! NO-MAH!" (Noah - from Noah's Ark) I looked in the direction of where her little finger was pointing and waving excitedly and there stood a man with long white fluffy hair and a long white fluffy beard - JUST like the Little People Noah toy she has at home. I would have just agreed with her and moved on, but the man was looking right at her smiling with a confused look on his face. He looks at me and says, "What is she saying?" Im cornered now....I tell this man my daughter thinks he looks like Noah and probably wonders why he doesnt have two zebras and two lions next to him. He was a good sport and even told her he planned on building an ark if the rain kept up.

I know the time is coming where we will go from pleasant exchanges to outrageous and loud comments that only kids can make. You know the ones Im talking about...the kind that makes the "Kids say the darndest things" category. I can tell that as Jubilee gets older, there will come a time where she will blurt out whats on her enquiring mind in a fanfare fashion and I will want the floor to open and swallow me up. Its ok tho... eventually she will be a teenager and the tables will turn!

Finally!

I finally got a word from my eye doctor today. It wasnt what I wanted to hear in that they had the results....of course they didnt. In fact, it will be another week before we get them! They do know that my "sample" is at the U of W and apparently is being studied as I type to you. I had to nag them with a few phone calls to get that answer, but at least we have a more definite time line!

Stay tuned for further developments on My Icky Eye!

NO Update from Eye Doctor

Well, its 15 mins past closing time for my eye doctor's office and Im assuming they arent going to call me today. Im disappointed, since Ive been waiting all day for this call, but I do realize she is 7 months pregnant, and Im sure doctors suffer from pregnant brain just like regular people do. I will be calling first thing in the morning and every 15 mins thereafter until they are so sick of me that they MUST tell me the results.

I'll keep you updated!

My Icky Eye, Chapter 3

Today I am sitting at home anxiously awaiting a phone call from my eye doctor to tell me the results of my latest biopsy of my eyeball.

Last I blogged about this over on MySpace, I hadnt yet received the results from my first biopsy. In that sample they tested for Cat scratch, chlamydia, and some weird infections they get in 3rd world countries. As knew they would, the results came back negative. They had me come right back in for a second and more significant biopsy just to rule out something sort of scary. Its unlikely, but my eye doctor said she would like to rule out Lymphoma just so we both have peace of mind about it. I really have no other symptoms of that other than whats going on in my eye, plus the fact that other meds havent made it better. Im expecting these results to be the same as the first.

The biopsy itself was really gory and interesting to me. Despite the fact it was being done on MY eye, it was still cool to watch how they do that sort of thing. Again I was a very good girl and kept my eye open wide and up at the ceiling so they didnt have to use the Clockwork Orange contraption. (whew) This time she pulled down my lower lid, (after many stinging drops of numbing solution), and cut a strip of flesh from the inside of my lower lid. I didnt feel a thing this time, but it bled like crazy! Its very strange to look in the mirror and see blood pouring from your eye like tears. We decided to put a patch on it mainly because my mom was in the waiting room with Jubilee and I didnt really want Juju to see blood coming from my eye.

So any minute now I should be hearing from the doctor. When this test comes back negative, she said we will move onto other infections that are somewhat rare, but possible.

I'll be back once I hear from the eye doctor!

New Blog!!

So I guess you could say Ive jumped the MySpace ship. I had written a few blogs over there. Its easy and its convenient for my family since most of them are on MySpace also. However, there are aspects of MySpace that are just downright creepy. Even if you do not take into account the bad press MySpace has gotten lately for internet predators, it still gives me the heebiejeebies just a bit. First of all, at 34 Im well into the "ancient" age bracket on MySpace. The majority of people on there are teenagers looking to advertise themselves and boast their "wild" lifestyle since parents are most likely not to find their childrens MySpace page. Secondly, I get some WEIRD messages. For example, here is one I got a few weeks ago: "what up shawty im just chillin her...u lookin sexy girl for sure and i was hoping you could rate my music on my page...hit me up and if it doesnt down load add me and try later...muah...xoxoxo,,ps,,,im in sequm right now and i always go to PA and i never see any woman as classy as you". What the hell is a shawty? And if he never sees any woman as classy as me, then he surely needs to get out more. So, I think Im going to not do MySpace anymore. Its people like that visiting my page and seeing my pictures and seeing my baby's pictures. Ew. I will keep my MySpace page just to check in with my family that uses it still.....but most definitely will be taking down the pictures.

So here I am on this bloggy spot. I know a few people blogging here already and its a fun way to keep up on each other lives.