Challenges, or Opportunities?

Our sales reps at the company I work for always like to stress that a customer doesn't have issues, or problems, they are simply opportunities; opportunities for us to right wrongs, resolve things, etc. It's a nice way to put a positive spin on a crappy situation, to put it simply. I used this philosophy on Sunday when presenting our church's budgetary deficit, stopping short of doing the timeshare salesman "here's what we need from you" approach, and without banging the pulpit demanding increased giving, which is what we ultimately need to get back into our basic operations, and ultimately ensure that my wife doesn't find herself out of a job.

Anyway, that's the first opportunity in our lives that has presented itself. It will be some time before Emily's paycheck lands on the cutting block, and we're crossing our fingers that this deficit will just "go away".

My, um, opportunities with my skin condition continue to be entertaining, to say the least. After almost 48 hours of treatment, the steroids I'm on have done nothing but increase my itching and make me feel like I'm constantly simmering in an Ezy Bake Oven. It was by no means warm today, and probably for the first time in my life my hands were actually warm, bordering on hot (for those of you that know me, I come with an icy handshake at all times of the year, don't know why, blood pressure issue?). I went to Wal Mart tonight in a short sleeve shirt, and wasn't cold in the slightest walking across the parking lot in 50 degree/windy weather. I also pumped gas in the elements and wasn't phased. It was suggested that I take Benadryl (sp?) for the allergic reaction I'm still suffering from, and will be curious to see if it's warning about causing drowsiness will offset the crack-like effect the steroids or having on me. It's 12:30 am here, and despite only getting 4 hours sleep last night (awakened by the feeling of being on fire at 4am), I feel like I've had 12 instead (if you hadn't figured that by this wordy blog). An interesting side effect of the steroids is that in some people that are allergic to them, the itching actually gets worse. I hope that's not happening with me, and am holding on desperately to the fact that at least the bumps that were spreading all over my body from the mites biting me from the inside of my skin (ewww) has stopped, and are going away.

Hey, take a look at this, our deck arbor is gone. Man it's bright out there now. The four posts for our new wrought iron pergola got blown over in the wind last night, you'll see them laying everywhere on the deck. I bought a belt sander to strip the paint off the deck before I position this thing.

Here's the top, which I'm still bolting together (tightening is the better word, I suppose). I feel empowered to put this together on my own... tonight, but will refrain, even with my new found energy, my arms aren't ten feet long.

Here's another opportunity, to solve the gas crisis and the increasing costs associated therein. I've got this sweet ride in the garage that I think I'm going to start taking out on the road in favor of my gas guzzling Passport that boasts a whopping 17 mpg city. This new ride comes equipped with a sweet dashboard setup (coaster, etc), and it's my favorite color, a sure standout on the open road.

We had a garage sale this past weekend, selling our old bedroom furniture. Believe it or not, this is MUCH better than it had looked in there before the sale. You'll also see the treadmill that I've avoided for the past month. Sickness and other obligations have kept me off it, but I'm going to get back on it soon, I think. My knees can't take the slow running, which I guess is good if I'm going to get under 10 minutes on my mile, but I can't envision myself trucking it at 6mph for ten minutes without my chest and/or legs exploding. I was down to a shade under 11 before I got out of the habit, and that damn near killed me. Stay tuned.

Poor Emily is still suffering from a virus she shared with me three weeks ago, at least that's what she thinks she still has. She's going to the doctor tomorrow to get her cough and sore ears checked out.

You probably noticed (or not) in the right margin that I've installed a new monitor for who's visiting this blog, as well as the Hoes one (new post to come shortly there in honor of St. Patty's Day). This new monitor actually tells me where you're coming from, and how you got here. While the map is interesting, this new monitor gives me a good idea of when friends and family have dropped by. Pretty cool, I thought.

And yes, I promise more Brenna pictures and video will be coming. I mean, how can you beat the baby duck song, anyway?

Baby DUCK!

That Aunt Beth works wonders with our little one at daycare. Last night Emily was changing Brenna (while I stood idly by offering no assistance, filming her, as you'll see/hear in the video), Brenna broke into this diddy about a baby duck that goes quack, quack, quack. Neither one of us had a clue where she had picked that up, but we found out today that this was an Auth Beth song that she apparently latched onto, and with flair.

Listen and enjoy, I got the same serenade this morning when I got her ready for daycare.

And I'm still itching uncontrollably, thanks for asking. The prednazone (sp?) I'm on are supposed to take 48 hours to control things, but in the meantime I constantly feel like my body is in an oven, and I can't stop my legs from shaking when I'm sitting down (I might go for a run on the treadmill later to see if I can break a 10 minute mile now that I'm doped up).

One More Plant Picture, And That's It, I Swear

Somehow the Brenna blog is slowly being taken over by plant pictures. For that, I apologize. I have no new Brenna pictures to share tonight, although we taped her singing some made up song called Baby Duck, Quack Quack Quack, that we're wondering where it came from. I'll be uploading that later tonight or on Monday, it's very entertaining.

We had a cold front move through today, barely made it to a chilly 70 degrees, brrr. After church today we went on a picnic with Emily's family at the Arboretum in Superior, again, no pictures, you'll have to imagine our daughter running around and doing cute things. Sorry!

And yes, below is a better picture of our gold dust draceana, I still can't find anything on the net about this thing ever blooming, or how ofter. The scent from the blooms, although small, can now be sensed throughout our living room, and thankfully it's a pleasantly sweet scent.

And The Winner Is...

Scabies, ladies and gentlemen. After three weeks of intense nightly itching in various parts of my body, I gave in to my wife's suggestion to go to the doctor, and this is what he tells me I have. And my, what a pleasant thing to have, it is. I invite you to read up on this glamorous affliction at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scabes.

A quick excerpt:

Scabies is caused by the mite Sarcoptes scabiei, variety hominis, as shown by the Italian biologist Diacinto Cestoni in the 18th century. It produces intense, itchy skin rashes when the impregnated female tunnels into the stratum corneum of the skin and deposits eggs in the burrow. The larvae, which hatch in 3-10 days, move about on the skin, molt into a "nymphal" stage, and then mature into adult mites. The adult mites live 3-4 weeks in the host's skin.


So yes, as we speak there are living organisms crawling around under my skin. Although this condition, I'm told, is rare out here in the desert, we have had a mild, wet winter, which is conducive to picking up the nasty buggers from plants and top soil, which is no doubt where I managed to find them.

Moving onto more pleasant things, here's a picture of me spending an afternoon pushing Brenna on her swing. It's been in the 80's the last few days, and with the setting sun, the swing has been in the perfect location for enjoyment (and by the way, despite what Wikipedia says, my condition isn't contagious, so neither Brenna or Emily have things crawling inside them at the moment).

That UFO shaped thing in the foreground is the top of our new pergola, which I hope to install on the deck very soon. The green post there in the foreground, along with the other four from our old arbor, were hacked off today by Emily's dad.

Laziness strikes again, some pictures from the yard, including this narcissus or daffodil, can't remember which this is. I have posted some other new blooms in the last few days at the Hoes site, so please check that out as well while you're in the neighborhood.

And here are some gazanias that are growing leaps and bounds in this warmth (to call this heat would be a slap in the face to June and July, who are laughing ominously for their turn to take center stage).

Tomorrow when the sun is back up, I'm going to try and take another picture of this plant, which my aunt gave me almost ten years ago. It's a gold dust dracanea (sp?), and to my recollection, it's never bloomed before (at least not in the six years I've lived out here).

The blooms are white and stringy and actually smell like honeysuckle, somewhat sweet. I won't attempt to taste one, I have enough bodily issues at the moment, thank you very much.

Other exiting things I have to look forward to this upcoming week:

- As acting chairman of our church's finance committee, I have the dubious honor of getting to present our budget deficit, which should go over like gangbusters. Tomorrow can't get here soon enough, so I can get that over with.

- A dentist's appt on Tuesday, where I will yet again be berated by my hygienist for not flossing enough, not flossing correctly, or a combination of the two. If I'm lucky, I'll pick up a few cavities for my slackassedness (that's a word now, look it up), and get to go back for some fillings.

- An extremely busy work week, coordinating the reissue of thousands of ATM cards for credit unions across the country, to make an April 1 mandate where without doing this accounting departments everywhere will scream in horror with balancing issues. If these cards aren't reissued correctly, members will get stranded trying to buy things with glorified ice scrapers. No pressure, or anything.

I'm sure there are more things to look forward to that I could post, but I think with any more excitement I might just curl up and wait for April to get here, and that just wouldn't be fair to March.

Two New Videos

For your viewing pleasure, I offer up this fine evening/morning two clips of Brenna being a chucklehead and singer of songs.

Out Of Hiding

In my last picture-less update, I mentioned that the crown molding was up in our bedroom. Well, here's the proof. There is still some clean up to do to make it look finished, but it's definitely a step above having a non painted line around the top of the room.



Tonight Brenna did some more coloring, and this time around I got wise and took a few pictures. She's very intent when working the crayons and is further fascinated with sliding them in and out of the chute at the top of her crayon "box" (aka an old wipes box).

As you scroll down you'll find a picture of her latest work, entitled "Scribbles At Sunset".

This afternoon I finished demolishing my pride and joy on the back porch, my wooden planter. Emily mentioned the deck looks a lot larger without it, and I agree, but it was difficult tearing down something that I was proud of building just last year. At any rate, it's a done deal, and once I've taken a belt sander to the deck, I'll be putting in the pergola we bought a few months back. It was nearly 80 degrees today and it felt like every bit of it without overhead shade. I actually had to take my shirt off while I was shoveling the topsoil out of the old planter and into the yard.

If you mosey over to the Hoes blog, I've uploaded a picture of a an annual planter that I put out in the sun a few days ago that's now blooming. It's a combination of dianthus and alyssium (sp?). I like the color combination and got a good picture of both blooming at the same time. More pictures from the yard will be following soon, with the temperatures warming, there are numerous plants blooming now.

The No Picture Blog

Wait, don't leave yet, although there aren't any pictures in this blog, I have a few updates on things around here:

1 - Brenna is feeling much better, her cough is almost completely gone, her eye infection is better, her ear infection is healing, and she's sleeping more than before

2 - The crown molding is up in our bedroom, it still needs finishing touches, but it's up

3 - The arbor on the back deck is almost completely taken down, I hope to finish that demolition job tomorrow and put the pergola in it's place

No other exciting news to share at this point, thanks for looking, you ROCK!

Brenna Bath Time!

Let the record state that our water is not this poor of quality. Brenna was soaking tonight in some powder for her rash issues from some medication related... um... issues.

Yucky Week

Sorry for the lack of posts this past week, the three of us have all been sick. We're slowly recovering, Brenna finally slept almost normally last night, so we're all very excited about that. We've been sharing a mighty fine virus that has me still hacking uncontrollably at moments, which is a plus when trying to talk to customers on the phone all day.

Below are pictures from this past weekend, taken during one of the moments when the three of us were feeling decent. Brenna loves being outside, and it's a nice distraction when we let her wonder on her own.

One of her favorite outdoor activities (besides swinging), is putting rocks in our hands, or in containers, such as this one. She is very good about handing us small objects, and very rarely is interested in seeing how they taste. We both agree that she has inherited my anal retentiveness in the cleaning and tidying department.

You'll notice some of my bulbs are coming up already, including a calla lily. I'll be posting some pictures of the lilac vine on the Hoes site shortly, it's in full bloom.

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa H for the nifty outfit pictured here. This was another goodie in Brenna's V-Day package.

In this one, Brenna is pointing to something on the orange jubilee bushes, maybe a bloom, not sure. These are some of my favorite pictures because they combine family with my gardening hobby.

Here's another one where Brenna is fascinated by something overhead.

These last two pictures show our big girl walking up and down this little walkway on the side of our house.

Yet Another Update

Keep reading and I promise that beyond the bedroom pictures you will find new Brenna ones.

And skip over to the Hoes blog, I'm posting a few yard pictures. With our temps being in the 70s this past week, some things are starting to bloom.

Oh yes, and we've uploaded a new Brenna art piece at the Art Gallery.

We're almost finished with our bedroom project, below is my dresser with a few plants added this past weekend. We'll be replacing the blinds with bamboo ones once we get the window sized up.



Here is Emily's dresser, the same as mine. It barely fit in the back of our Passport, whew! We still have a mirror to hang here (leaning against the dresser) and the ceiling fan. Thanks to Aunt Sue for the wonderful suggestion to purchase palm blades for our existing fan, but in the end we decided to replace the entire thing and move the old fan into my office.

Here's part of our new bedding, minus some extra throw pillows that Emily later discovered were down. We'll be taking those back to IKEA soon. In the corner there is a lamp/nightstand. We'll be hanging a canopy over the bed and will be blowing up some more pictures of our last trip together to Hawaii in here. Emily saw three pictures of some historic buildings in Kona that she thought would look good in sepia tone, I'll post those once they're done.

This weekend we tackle with Emily's dad's help, the crown molding, which is painted and ready to install!

Ok, enough of that. Because we miss Christmas so much, we put Brenna in this outfit a few nights ago and took pictures of her and her potty. Genious!

Emily is taking the little hair farmer to get a real haircut very soon. Hopefully I can tag along and take some pictures of that momentous occasion.

Here is Brenna holding her new favorite purse, given to her for Valentine's by Grandma H. We hope to be seeing her and Grandpa H again sometime in April.

Bad Year For Dogs

I am sad to report that we have now lost the O in TEBOT, barely a month after we lost the T.

Orson was found deceased this morning at Emily's parents house, where he had taken up residence since Emily's pregnancy. He was saved from the pound nearly four years ago, and there is no way to know how old he was, but it would appear that he went peacefully in his sleep overnight, so we're thankful for that.

Below are a few pictures of Orson, the last picture is of him and Tazi when they were both here at the house together. Like Tazi, I'll be adding a halo to Orson's portion of the TEBOT name.

Some Friend

I'm not naming any names, but someone in the following story is getting a raw deal.

Brenna Sized Post

Again, my apologies in advance for any manhandling of the English language in the following post. Spell check is still not working for some reason and even if I proof read this, it would still be pretty bad.

We managed to capture a number of emotions this evening as Brenna read with Emily on the couch some of her favorite Pooh books and looked at some picture flash cards. Below are a few for your amusement.

This first shot is Brenna illustrating through interpretive dance what a butterfly looks like. Of course, with a still camera, you get part of the Vulcan greeting, minus one finger. Trust me, her hand movements for the butterfly are impressive.

BTW, we don't normally dress her in little boys clothes, I heard through the grapevine that there was a momentous pooing earlier today that sullied her first and/or second outfit of the day. She's recovering from an ear infection and pink eye and you can only imagine what the medication does to the old hind quarters.

But I digress. Here's a shot of Brenna pointing out something cool in one of her books. We'll say it was a monster truck with alligators in it, just to cover our bases.

In case I've failed to mention it before, Brenna is teething. Here's Exhibit A. Normally there is most of a fist in that pie hole, but tonight she's been favoring a finger at a time. Occasionally she bites down too hard on them and is very displeased about the whole affair.

This picture took a few takes, the first attempt our daughter looked a bit stoned. In this one she appears deep in thought as she immitates Winnie The Pooh, who's thinking about what to dress up as on that day in the 100 Acre Wood (a bumble bee, for those of you scoring at home).

This is the "think, think, think" portion of that storyline.

Here is a nice picture of Brenna chuckling at Emily doing something beyond all coolness. You can only imagine.

Ahh, a rare moment where Brenna is not clawing Emily's eyes out or swinging from the light fixtures bellowing like a wild yard ape. It's not all that bad, really.

Speaking of yard ape, Brenna was throwing down so hard on the xylophone tonight that she appeared in a flash in this picture.

In actuality the flash didn't fire, and here you go, art, voila.



Here she is, "slowed down", tinkling on her "ching chong ling a long", as we call it. She has another fine Pooh book where all of the characters are given instruments to play in a band, and Pooh gets the xylophone.

When time permits, I'll attempt to video tape Brenna making some fun and assorted animal sounds, as well as her commentary on this years upcoming Presidential election. She also chimes in on illegal immigration, pointing out a Hispanic baby in her Splash Time book, and calling him "Pedro", that is not to be missed.

Four Saturday Morning Videos

Bedroom Update

Warning: There are no Brenna pictures in this blog!

We've put curtains up and situated our new dresser. We have another one on the way for Emily that's just like this one, we'll be putting it on the wall to the left of this shot.

Also pictured here is our new bed that we had delivered yesterday. Large enough for a Brenna bear to kick us in the ribs in our sleep, both of us!

I picked up some crown molding today and will be painting that soon for installation.

Three For The Road

I've finally uploaded some new videos for your viewing pleasure.

Lots of Brenna action! Enjoy!

Quick Update

Spell check in Blogger must be permanently out of commission, or else I'm suffering from amnesia and can't remember how to use it. Don't be shocked by my spelling on a third grade level as you sift through this post.

Our new carpet is down in our bedroom. Between the fumes from it and the paint, my sinuses are plugged up, perhaps forever more.

We're pretty pleased with the paint color, combined with the carpet, the room reminds me of Key Lime pie, which is a nice thing to think of when going to sleep.

Emily is working on finishing up the trim, and once she's done with that, I'm going to tackle putting up crown molding (hence the white stripe at the top of the walls where we haven't bothered painting). We'll also be replacing this ceiling fan with one with palm fronds for blades.

No new Brenna pictures, sorry about that. She's been in such a foul mood with her canines coming in that you wouldn't want to see her anyway. The only thing that's kept her happy recently is a neat DVD of songs by her favorite artist, Laurie Berkner (sp?). She sings some neat kid friendly tunes that Brenna loves and sings along to in her own little way.

Some other new developments in Brenna's little world:

- Saying "my daddy" when I pick her up : )
- Identifying Elmo and Dora and calling them by name over and over and over again
- Showing interest in the potty (another new favorite word), although not too thrilled at this point in spending much time sitting on the one we got her
- Using lots of hand gestures and body movements when listening to her L.B. music, including beating her chest, stomping her feet, clapping her hands, and making all sorts of little noises to go along

I'm sure there are many more, I'll post them as they come to mind. I also have video of her singing/yelling along to the American Idol auditions, and will upload that as soon as I have time.

Another Busy Day

Emily and I went to a church thing tonight, came home and painted the second coat in our bedroom. Tomorrow the carpet in that room will get replaced and we still have to move a bed, dresser, vanity, and all the crap piled on top of those items out of there by the time the workers get here to do their thing. This has been a lot of work, taking care of these things while Brenna sleeps, but it's the only time to get anything done.

The night before Emily had a meeting with staff at the church, and I was left to babysit. Below are a few pictures from that.

And yes, the beard is still there.