A Journey With The Jones': October 2014

Oct 31, 2014

Halloween 2014 (Work Edition)

This year for Halloween at work 9 of us decided to participate in a Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs theme.

I was chosen to be Snow White. But who am I kidding, we all know I love to be the center of attention.

We also had a witch, biker chick and a pirate!

"Would you like an apple?"

SLEEPY

SNEEZY

HAPPY

BASHFUL

GRUMPY

DOPEY

DOC

END SCENE

This was a little dramatic, but we figured why not..hehehe

Oct 22, 2014

Everybody poops (edited)

Disclaimer: This post IS totally about poop, so stop reading if you don't want a good laugh.

One day Persephone may kill me for sharing this with the world, but it sounds so surreal, I have to get it out.

Sunday evening Persephone followed me into the bathroom and said she wanted to go potty too. I took off her diaper and she sat on her potty for a minute at most. Eventually she said "I done" and stood up. She didn't actually go, but I didn't worry about it because we were in the bathroom and if she showed the signs of having to go I would remind her to sit down.

Not even 15 seconds later, she literally shits on the floor. Out of nowhere, no warning...straight up pooped. To be technical, it was melted chocolate ice cream poop.

I rush to clean myself up.

She steps in her poop.

I tell her not to move.

She starts crying.

I start wiping up the poop.

She's still crying.

I clean off her foot.

I keep cleaning the floor.

She continues to cry.

I'm literally tossing the mess into the toilet.

We surprisingly make it out alive.

Thank goodness we keep paper towels in that bathroom and not a hand towel...I don't even want to think about using that to clean up the mess....

Hardy missed out on this amazing afternoon. But he was so kind to clean out the toilet. I piled so many paper towels in it, there was no way it would flush. So how about that for an end to the weekend?!

On a slightly sadder note, her tummy continued to hurt. She didn't touch her dinner (pizza that she loves) and she had a pretty crappy (no pun intended) nights sleep. I ended up kicking Hardy downstairs to sleep on the couch and about 1am and brought her into the bed with me. She kept waking up crying and we had no idea why. She still tossed/turned and cried even in our bed.

***UPDATE**

Monday we pick her up from school, they explained that she was overly tired and didn't eat a good lunch. That night she continued to be lethargic and whiny and didn't eat dinner again.

Tuesday at about 5:45am I wake up to her screaming for me. Before I even get her bedroom door open I can immediately smell poop. I flip on the light and sure enough the poor little girl had totally pooped in her bed. It was all over her, two blankets and the sheet. Luckily all of her babies (stuffed animals) were on the edges of the crib and were unaffected. I threw away the shirt, sheet and 2 blankets. I know you can wash stuff...but those things are replaceable. I put her in a luke warm bath and she just sat there in a daze for a good 15-20 min. Finally when she wanted to get out, I brought her into our room to put a diaper on and she fell asleep.

I always see videos/pictures of babies/toddlers falling asleep in random places, but honestly Persephone never has. She was passed out before I even finished putting the tabs on her diaper. I knew immediately I was staying home with her. I scooted her up onto a pillow and she slept until 8:45am. She refused water and juice and I caved and let her have chocolate milk. She wouldn't touch her toast or yogurt. About 1hr after the milk, she puked ALL OVER the couch. I was sure it was my fault for allowing the milk.

We go upstairs for another bath and proceed to lay down for another nap - she slept for 3HRS! When she woke up, she finally ate about 1/2 container of yogurt and some potato chips. This time I let her have some water/tea mix. She seemed a little better, but still lethargic. By the time Hardy got home she had perked back up. She ate a little bit of dinner, played hide and seek in the hall closet, played with her train table. We thought all was normal. She went to bed fine, but woke up at 2:30 begging to "get out". This time Hardy volunteered to go downstairs and she slept in the bed with me until it was time to get up.

All seemed semi-normal, so I sent her to school because she hadn't ran a fever this entire time. About 9:30 or so this morning they called and said she had thrown up, still no fever. Hardy's on his way to get her now....

So what started as a funny story, is not quite pitiful because she feels so terrible. This stomach bug can go away now.

Oct 20, 2014

Kinsey Family Farm

Last year we started a new tradition of visiting Kinsey Family Farm in north Gainesville. They have a beautiful little farm, clean and quaint. They offer tractor rides, snacks, tshirts, hats..etc. They even have some animals from their farm they bring to the front pasture so you can feed them/pet them (that's our favorite.)

I looked around at other pumpkin farms this year, but decided to stick with Kinsey and I'm glad we did. We chose to go Sunday morning at around 10:30am.

First stop - COWS

I'll pet you on my own thank you

Ok maybe just on the ear/head

Up high

These two just didn't care about the crowd

I couldn't get a clear photo with the goat

Looking at some other cows

We definitely used hand sanitizer before this occured

PUMPKINS

She kept telling me the pumpkins were cold

Of course she'll smile with Daddy

I can do it on my own

High FIVE with Harper ;)

This is one of my favorites from that day

I think we're going to visit the farm again around Christmas.

I don't know if we'll buy a real tree or not, but we enjoyed our time there!

Kinsey Family Farm

Oct 14, 2014

Thanks a lot doc

In person I can be pretty vulgar. But I actually do keep some things to myself or closest of friends because I just need an ear - who doesn't? Back in August, I made a blog entry about my experience with a chemical pregnancy. Never happened before, but after I did a ton of research, apparently it’s pretty darn common. Most women just don’t test for pregnancy because their period never goes more than a week overdue.

Last Wednesday I went into the doctors office explaining I had performed several hpt’s (home pregnancy tests) that were all negative. They advised to do blood work and see that might be causing it – mainly looking at a possible thyroid issue. Thursday afternoon they called and the nurse explained “Everything looks good, but you’re pregnant.”

After I picked my jaw up off the floor I said “What? I can’t be. How do you know?” I was dumbfounded so give me a break for sounding naive. She said when they ran the blood work they automatically look for hCG (human chorionic gonadotropin – it’s produced by the placenta once implantation occurs during pregnancy.) I asked the nurse what the level was and she said 51. So of course I did some research to try and find out whether or not that number was normal based on the duration of the pregnancy.

My last cycle was 8/25-8/30 so my next period should have happened on or around 9/26. My cycles usually run about 28-32 days apart. Even when I was on birth control pre-Persephone and on the Paragard IUD post Persephone, I’ve only been irregular three times. Once in 2011, it was 14 days late, but it eventually came. In 2012 I was pregnant with P and this last hiccup in August when it was 6 days late from that chemical pregnancy. One would assume, the Paragard a non hormonal IUD would have no affect on your periods after removal…but who knows really.

I spent this entire weekend worrying and worrying over being pregnant. I probably took 5 hpt’s, all of which came up negative, although I swore two of them turned up with very faint positives.... I was confused, worried, anxious…you name it, I probably felt it. When the nurse called me last Thursday she said to come back in this week and let them re-draw to check the numbers. I couldn’t wait until Wednesday so Monday morning after dropping Hardy off, I drove over to his office. I asked for a copy of my blood work from last week and asked them nicely to please go ahead and draw again now. I don’t know the exact details, but from what I was able to find online – hCG doubles every 48-72hrs so if they were to re-check your blood at least every 3 days, they would notice the number going up (which would result in a healthy pregnancy in most cases.) If my hCG was 51 on Wednesday, it would at least be about 100 – 200 Monday. The staff obliged, drew another sample.

When I got to work, I reviewed the lab results a little closer and noticed something just didn’t look right. If any of you have ever read lab work, you know that anything with a low or high result will usually be highlighted/bold so it stands out for the doctor to review. Everything was perfect aside from my glucose which was bold because the reading was 100 and the “textbook range” is 65-99mg/dL. I glanced further down to where the doctor circled hCG and 51….I noticed hCG wasn’t bold, but rather the reading right above it was. I flipped out. The nurse/doctor told me just 4 days ago I was pregnant and now looking at my blood work, clearly I’m not.

You can imagine the thoughts circling in my brain. I called and left a message for someone to call me ASAP (I’m sure they thought I was crazy.) After waiting for an hour I called back again. You’ve almost convinced me I’m pregnant and now it’s obvious by these results…I’m not. Now I think my liver is failing because this number is insanely high.

Anyway, take a gander at this report yourself.

You will see that GLUCOSE is bold,

my # was 100 and the range is 65-99

You will see that ALT is bold,

my # was 51 and the range is 6-29

You will see that hCG is not bold

my # was <2 means="" not="" p="" pregnant="" which="">

The doctor did call to personally apologize for the misinterpretation, said he was going to go ahead and look at my liver enzymes again to see if that number is still elevated and just to re-check for pregnancy. If I'm not pregnant then he'll give me some pill to make my period start.

I'm at such a loss for words.

I'm pissed.

I'm worried.

I'm disappointed.

Oct 13, 2014

Disney Day 3

When we checked into our hotel Sunday evening, they gave us a welcome packet with some coupons to nearby attractions and restaurants. They conveniently had a Disney ticket sales desk in the lobby so we didn't have to wait until we got to the park. The catch was they ALWAYS have some sales tactic these people.

Several years ago we sat through a Disney Vacation Club presentation just so we could score free fast passes. It was a very long 2hr process, but wasn't complete torture. Somehow I got suckered into doing a Wyndham Vacation presentation so we could score buy 1 get 1 free adult tickets to any one park. Hey I was all about trying to save money...but in turn, I think our patience and sanity is more important.

Tuesday morning we got up really early and had breakfast with Pluto and Goofy at our hotel (I was told it was the only non-Disney character breakfast that didn't require a reservation.) It was $24.50/adult and free for kids under 4. Breakfast was decent and because we were there so early we got a nicely timed visit with each character.

You can tell from these photos she hadn't been awake long, but she loved it :)

She thought Goofy was so funny

After breakfast we stopped at a display for the

new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Couldn't resist...

I'm the only one who took it seriously.

Then we were taken via shuttle to the WORST vacation/timeshare presentation known to man. The resort was very beautiful. We were shown their 4 bedroom Presidential Suite (of course what's not to love about that....but WHO can afford it??).

Our direct sales rep and his upper were decent. Not too pushy. But it took longer than the 2hrs they described. Even after we told the reps we weren't interested, we had to wait and have some "floor manager" come do an exit questionnaire? Like what else did we need to say - not interested. As we were sitting in a little breakfast area, there were at least 50 sales reps crowding the halls and doorways standing around doing nothing. They were snickering, texting on their cell phones and worse than anything BAD MOUTHING the tourists. If I'm a potential buyer, I should NOT be able to hear you talking badly about other buyers. It was honestly worse than any car dealership I've ever been to. Everyone has to make a living, but they needed a break room. It was too overwhelming and unprofessional. When the "floor manager" finally shows up he wasn't there to ask me how my experience went, he was there to try and sell me the stupid travel package. I thought telling him how unprofessional our experience was he would be receptive and apologetic....nope not at all! Instead he just said "Well sometimes it gets busy around here."

Go to hell rude ass....never again, no matter how sweet the deal. I am NEVER doing one of those stupid seminars again. Ever. Mark my words. FINALLY when we got our complimentary tickets, we were dropped off at EPCOT.

I just LOVE this pic, too bad my camera caught the humidity.

Did you know EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. This year we totes forgot to go take a pic with our "Leave a Legacy" sketch...oh well, there's always next time. We walked to World Showcase to enjoy lunch at one of our favorites - San Angel Inn in Mexico.

Here's an outside view

And the inside...

If you really take a moment to look around and explore all the rides/buildings at Disney parks, it's TRULY amazing how large they are. From the outside everything seems fairly modest, but on the inside these places are HUGE. After lunch we walked back towards Future World so we could do Journey Into Imagination with Figment, The Seas with Nemo & Friends and Character Spot.

"Mickey hold you!"

No smiles here.

Smiles for Minnie!

Then no smiles again...star stuck?!

Right after we met Chip & Dale she started getting sleepy so

I rocked her in the stroller until she fell asleep.

From there we headed back to World Showcase so we get a final ride with Maelstrom. Luckily we picked a fast pass for it because the wait was 45min. Sadly for the Maelstrom/Norway fans they've almost completely converted the giftshop into Frozen items. There wasn't any Maelstrom specific memorabilia left. Hardy managed to grab a Norway hat and a Norway shirt, but that was it. I heard some lady ask about Maelstrom pins, but I told her good luck finding one on Ebay you can afford. A few months back I remember getting an email from Disney store offering a limited edition Maelstrom shirt for $24.95, I should have snagged it because now those damn shirts are $75+ on ebay and unofficial Disney webstores.

We headed over to Great Britain to meet the quaint Alice!

Aren't these facial expressions just the greatest?

She may be naively curious, but she's cute too

Looking back at these photos, I'm almost positive Persephone peed through her diaper. At the time we just assumed it was from the stroller getting wet during the rain...but yea, clearly..this is an overflow leak.

Sorry Alice - you hugged a pee baby ;)