Okay, I Think We've Had Enough Excitement, Now...

On Thursday, Nora started having a nasty cough. I didn't think too much of it, but a few people told me I should take her to the doctor to have her checked out. Early Friday morning, she had a fever, so I called the doctor to try to get her in. Unfortunately, none of the doctors in the clinic had room on their schedules to see her. I decided to wait it out to see how she was. Later that afternoon, the fever came back. So, I loaded her in the car and took her to Stat Care. (The urgent care place in Salina). The doctor listened to her lungs and said they were clear, so no chance of RSV or pneumonia. He did notice that she had an ear infection, though. I'm glad I followed my gut and took her in. She didn't say anything about her ear bothering her! The doctor gave her some amoxicillin and sent us on our way.

Tonight, we went to a Quail Unlimited banquet. It was a really nice, relaxed atmosphere. We knew a lot of people there, so we had a good time chatting. Joe is on the committee, so he was in charge of the PLINK O game. When people weren't playing it, he was holding Nora up to drop the disks in. She thought it was great. I was keeping track of the prices of the items on the auction and Nora was playing over by the game. Suddenly, there was a big crash. We all looked back to see the 3'x5' piece of plywood with tons of metal pegs and Plexiglas lying on top of Nora. She started screaming and we rushed to her. The pegs had made puncture wounds in several places on her head, so she was bleeding quite a bit. We went into the kitchen to clean her up and noticed...one of the pegs had broken off in her scalp. Joe thought maybe he could pull it out, but we decided it would be best to take her to the ER. The hospital in our tiny town has an ER, but they are pretty worthless and would have sent us on to Salina, so we just went straight to Salina. She fussed a little bit on the way into town that her head was hurting, but eventually fell asleep. When we got to the ER, she was very cooperative with getting her vitals taken and was in pretty good spirits. Everything was fine until they brought in the papoose to strap her down in. She cried quite a bit while they deadened her head and then removed the peg, but recovered quickly once set free from the papoose. Her poor little head looks terrible, but she's fine. I decided to keep the peg that was in her head--it's almost exactly an inch long.

The blessing in disguise is that our deductible starts over tomorrow. *whew* Joe pointed that out to me while we were on the way home.

Pictures...

Astoria, Oregon

I just got back this morning at 2 am from my trip to Astoria, Oregon. I went out there to be a bridesmaid in my dear friend Leslie's wedding. It was only my second time flying and my first time traveling alone!

On Friday, I left home in the afternoon to drive to Wichita. I had a hotel room there so that I could get up at the crack of dawn to make my flight. Of course, I ended up being sick that day. (It spread from Nora to Joe to me...yay). It made for a long drive down, but I survived. More importantly, I felt a lot better the next morning.

On Saturday, I got up at 4 am and headed over to the Wichita airport. We flew on a prop. plane from Wichita to Denver. In Denver, I changed planes and had a much cushy-er ride the rest of the journey to Portland. After we landed, I made my way to baggage claim to pick my bags up and to meet Leslie. Her dad was our taxi service. Portland had received several inches of snow, but the city was unable to remove the it. That kind of snow is not normal in the area, so proper snow plows are non-existent. A lot of roads were either closed or should have been closed. We made our way to Maxx's (Leslie's husband) parent's house to regroup. While we were there, we all went out for burgers at a local place. I had fish and chips. LOL! We took several cars to fit everyone for the trip over to Astoria. It was a beautiful drive, but the fog was very thick, so Major Stelljes had a stressful time of driving. When we finally arrived at the hotel, I was awestruck. The town of Astoria is gorgeous and the hotel we stayed in was very upscale. I originally had plans to stay in the hostel in town, but Leslie's mom insisted that I stay in the suite that they had. After settling in, the group had a good time visiting in the suite. The bridal party decided to go out on the town and ended up dancing the night away.

The next day was all about the rehearsal and finishing up the last minute things for the wedding. After running through the wedding, we went to the restaurant Clemente's for the rehearsal dinner. The food (gourmet pizza) was amazing! We each stood up and talked about Maxx and Leslie. I unintentionally bawled. Oopsie! It was a really sweet and touching dinner devoted to the soon-to-be marrieds. Most everyone went back to the Pilot House (penthouse at the hotel) to continue the party. I went to bed "early," but still had a great time.

The day of the wedding was a lot of fun. The weather was crazy, though. It was very windy, but it would rain for 5 minutes, then the sun would come out, then it would hail for 5 minutes and clear off...so weird. We spent a better part of the morning and early afternoon at the hair salon. Leslie had a giant wedding party, so there were a lot of ladies having their hair done. Most had their makeup done, as well. (I did!) As soon as we left the salon, we went back to the hotel to get dressed. Leslie had Maxx come into the hotel room before the pictures so that they could have a private moment of seeing each other in their wedding clothes. I thought that was so sweet! We had all of our formal pictures taken in the hotel lobby. It was such a beautiful location. I cannot wait to see how they turned out! Everyone looked so lovely--especially Leslie. The wedding went off without a hitch and was a very nice ceremony. It went by so fast! The reception was an absolute blast. I danced until the music ran out and had a great time chatting with everyone.

The next morning, I got up early to make sure I had everything packed. There were 6 people staying in our room at one point, so it was a little bit messy. The people that made the pottery on Les and Maxx's registry offered to give me a ride to the airport, so I relaxed on the sofa in the room and enjoyed the view until it came time to leave. I got to the airport about 3 hours before my flight, so I got a lot of reading and perusing of the airport shops done in that time. The first leg of my flight was from Portland to Phoenix and it went off without a hitch. I got off of one plane in Phoenix and almost immediately boarded another headed for Wichita. Everything went fine on that flight until we began to land just outside of Wichita. We hit some major turbulence. Woo. That was scary for a few minutes! Luckily, we got out of it before we touched down. Ours was one of the last flights for the night, so the airport was mostly empty when I made my way through. (Which was nice!) I hitched a ride to the parking lot on the bus and was ready to go home. When I went to leave the parking lot, the automatic pay station would not read my debit card. That is the only option to pay with and I had no other cards. I called for assistance and they allowed me to pay with cash, but someone had to come out to "save" me. It was a huge relief to get on the road after that and an even bigger relief when I pulled into our driveway at 2 am!

All in all, it was a fantastic trip. I had so much fun and reconnected with old friends. I missed Joe and Nora terribly while I was away, though, so the homecoming was a sweet one! Stay tuned for pictures.

The Four Christmas Run-Down

Well, I think Christmas is over for us. *whew* It has been an interesting whirlwind this year!

On Tuesday, we had Christmas over at Joe's brother and his wife's house. Nora told me that her stomach hurt just before we went over, but I couldn't figure out what the problem was. She appeared normal. Shortly after we arrived (a 2-minute drive at the most), Nora threw up everywhere...including down my shirt. She continued to get sick several times over the night and was very clingy to me. I had high hopes that she would be feeling better in the morning.

Luckily, she seemed just fine on Christmas Eve morning. I had 6 pies to bake and make sure all the gifts were lined up for Christmas with my step-dad's family. I also needed to run through my solo of, "O Holy Night," a few more times to make sure I was sharp for that evening's service at our church. Around 3 pm, we went over to my step-grandparent's house and waited for the festivities to begin. My mom called Joe at the last minute to see if he could run to Salina to pick up a gift that was too large to fit in her car. They acted sneaky about it, so I suspected it was for me. After everyone arrived over at the Hoover's, Joe and I came back home to make sure Santa came to visit Nora. Joe worked today (Christmas Day), so we asked Santa to come a day early. When we walked in the house, I saw what Joe had to go into town for--dining room chairs! I'm so excited about them! I've had my dining room table for a couple of years now, but I didn't have matching chairs. After that excitement, we went back over to have dinner and open presents. I then left to go sing at church. Unfortunately, the computer in the sound booth was not working correctly and my DVD would not play in it over the speakers in the sanctuary. I ended up arranging for the pianist to play it for the congregation to sing instead. I didn't stay for the service. I was pretty disappointed since I'd worked hard to be ready for it. Oh well, maybe next year. After staying for a little while longer at my step-grandparent's house, we came home to give Nora the rest of her gifts. (And for me to give Joe his--he gave me mine earlier). We settled in for the night with Nora's favorite gift...a kitten...hiding out in the bathroom. I ended up bringing the kitten in bed with us. She stayed for the most part, but was traumatized this morning when she saw Buddy. He didn't do anything but stand there, but she is scared back into hiding again.

Today, Nora and I went out to my mom's house for one last Christmas. My brother, his fiancée, and their newborn daughter joined us. We had a good, relaxed time and just enjoyed hanging out with each other. I wish Joe could have been there, but he was on duty. Somebody has to save the world. :) Nora is down for a nap right now, but when she gets up, we'll head in to town to visit him at the fire station.

A new adventure begins for me tomorrow, but more on that later. For now, enjoy some of our pictures from Christmas 2008!

The Christmas Letter

To All of Our Friends and Family...and Random People on the Internet,

We hope this letter finds you happy and healthy! We didn't get a holiday letter out last year, so I hope you'll be able to put the pieces together if you have missed something.

In February, we moved to Minneapolis, KS. My mom and step-dad built a new house, so we moved into their old one. It originally was owned by my step-dad's grandparents, so it is neat to have it still "in the family." Upon moving here, we quickly became involved in the community. We started attending the United Methodist Church and have been warmly welcomed. I am a member of the hand bell choir and sing a lot of solos during services. Joe has given a fire-safety presentation, and Nora tends to entertain everyone during the services. Besides being active in church, Joe is particularly busy with things in town. He volunteers for the fire department here, works some part-time hours for our EMS, and is a member of the special rescue team for the county. We really love our new little town! Joe's brother and his wife moved to Minneapolis only a month after we did and my step-grandparents are here in town, as well. It is nice to have people just down the street that you know and love--especially when you are new in town.

In case you didn't already know, Joe was hired onto Salina Fire Department in May 2007. After 5+ years of going through the rigors of testing and interviewing for departments around the state, he persevered and made it! It has been wonderful for us. He loves his job and the schedule is fantastic. He works 24 hours on duty and then has 48 hours off. He's taken a few classes to further his career already and will be certified as an arson investigator next September. He is also in the beginning stages of the driver mentoring program at the department. Once he completes that, he'll be eligible to test for a driver's position. The test is only available after so many years of service. I think it will be another 3 years before he would be able to test, but he's very happy with his position of firefighter. When he finds time away from the emergency services, he enjoys spending time working on our house. Things have been at a stand-still for a little while, but he has almost completely redone the bathroom. He also repainted the outside of the house. The house is a fixer-upper, so we'll almost always be busy with projects. His biggest pride and joy is our little girl, Nora. It is so sweet to see the two of them together. She is a big daddy's girl and he is madly in love with her.

If you can believe it, Nora is 2 years old! She is our little joy, that's for sure. She is always making us laugh and surprising us with what she knows. She has a lot of friends through church and is also friends with our neighbor kids. Her best friend, though, is our Yellow Lab, Buddy. She gives him lots of hugs and kisses and likes to play around with him. He's a pretty good sport, although I think he'd rather nap most of the time. Nora loves to sing, dance, read, and play. She was a little slow on talking, but is really starting to catch up. We will have to watch what we say around her very soon. She'll be a little parrot in no time. My brother's fiancée just had a baby girl on December 4th, and Nora is thrilled to have a little baby around. She doesn't know just yet that she will have a friend and playmate soon. For now, she's content to hold and talk to the baby. So cute!

I stayed at home with Nora until she was 18 months old. Then, I decided to go back to work part-time as a substitute teacher. I only work at the schools here in town and on the days that Joe is off (no daycare worries for us!). I still stay pretty busy with those limitations. I really enjoy the variety of doing something different each day that I work. I sub for every class at every level, so it makes life interesting! Through subbing, I discovered that I have a strong desire to be a grade school teacher. (I majored in agricultural education in college). Because of that, I made the decision to return to school to earn my degree in elementary education. I'm only taking classes part-time over the internet, so it will be several years before I am ready to have my own classroom. The plan is to go back to work full-time after our child(ren) are in school. Until then, I will continue to sub.

We wish you nothing but the best in this holiday season! We hope that 2009 will be a prosperous year for you. Please feel free to check back to this website for frequent updates on our lives. We hope to hear from you soon!

Much Love,

Joe, Sylvia and Nora

A Very Proud Wife

I'm so very proud of Joe! He makes me proud all the time, but I am brimming with pride now. His last shift on duty, they were called out to two big house fires. He didn't get home until about 10:30 am because they were still cleaning up from the last fire they were on. He came home exhausted, but was a good daddy and took care of Nora while I went to sub for the afternoon. At 1:30 am, he was called out to a building on fire in our tiny town. (He volunteers for our town as well as working full-time as a firefighter for the next town over). The chief asked him what he thought they should do, so he told them--and they followed his instructions! The building was in a strip of buildings connected to each other. The businesses on either side of the building were unharmed, but the building that burned REALLY burned. All that is left is the brick facade. It is amazing to see. I'm planning on going down later to take some pictures of it.

Joe is my hero!

I'm an aunt!

Yesterday, my future sister-in-law gave birth to my very first niece. Her name is Kirri Jalaysia. She was born at 3:25 pm and was 19 1/2 inches long and 7lbs, 1 oz. I was able to hold her for a few minutes when she was less than an hour old! I think she looks just like my brother, but I haven't ever seen Prisca's baby pictures. Here are the pictures that were on the hospital's website.