standing on his own two legs

Look at my baby! Standing up on his own! He will only do it if I hand him some object he's really interested in, but he will stand there for like, 30 seconds. He even pushes Pompa's walker around on his own. If I can get the video to work I will post video of it.

Injured- injured bad.

I don't know how I can post after the Galveston pictures! I am enamored with them right now and I just don't want them to get lower on the blog totem pole. Is that weird? Yes. Moving right along, though. Not long after we got home from Galveston, the next day perhaps, Dave found the paper cutter I thought I had hidden well under my bed since the last time he found it. Apparently I don't give him enough credit for being a human radar for the dangerous. As I pulled him out from under my bed the paper cutter (which has a small rounded blade that slides up and down a plastic runner board) came down on Dave's finger. I noticed it a few seconds later when he wasn't crying, but fingerpainting in spots of his own blood. I bandaged it as best I could, but he kept chewing the bandaid off which caused the wound to continue bleeding. In a huff I ventured out to the band aid section at Kroger and purchased every bandage and bandaging material they had. I bandaged him and placed a sock over his hand. It was funny because he wouldn't use the bandaged hand, but curled it up and used it as a kind of crutch. Like a little gorilla, but with less black hair and a diapered butt. Finally, after he bled through the sock, I used Coban- my favorite 3M product! (I am such a NERD!) It's that tape that sticks to itself but not to your skin. Now that I explained it- it's your favorite too, huh? Anyway- that worked well and the wound is all healed up now- so Dave is happy to be bandage free. If you've made it all the way to the end of this long post without just skipping to the pictures, I commend you. Well done, thou good a faithful... reader? See- it's true- I am a nerd.

galveston: the finale!

Are you sick of seeing Galveston pictures yet??? Well too bad!!!



The ride home- again the children were suprisingly angelic- except for the last hour or so- we were all going stir-crazy.




























Morgan with her just dunked plastic face.

installment 3

Our last day at the beach. The ocean looked cool at this time of day.




Good bye, beach!

Morgan was chasing the birds.

texas: part deux

Our second day we went to the beach, rented an awesome 4 seater bike and rode it like speed lightning down the beach walk, then back to the beach, and then to the swimming pool. In case you were wondering, yes- we were water logged and ALL of our clothing smelled like a big stinky fish. BUT-Do you see us frowning about being salty and sandy 24/7 non-stop?? Not a chance.










My little old man with his 5 o'clock shadow.











Mmm... nothing like sandy flip flops, sunburn and some delicious vittles. Ever had guacamole with crab on top?? We're talking bonafide Texas Gulf crab meat- none a this crab with a K crap! It was mmm mmm good.













Does it warrant any further explanation?











Our awesome bike. I wasn't really pedalling, just resting my feet on the pedals. Wouldn't want to break a sweat on vacation!















Ahh the beautiful ocean... who woulda thunk it would smell like a smelly old fish? or do fish smell like stinky ocean??

somewhere between texas and mexico: installment 1 (primero)

King fish are jumping – the moon is right. Full throttle captain til we're out of sight. Stars on the ocean will find me, I know...Somewhere between Texas and Mexico.

Well this is a little overwhelming- I took about a million pictures so picking my favorites for ye olde blog will be somewhat of a task, but I am excited to share them with the world wide web, nevertheless. I think I will do this in installments... genius!
Our hotel was right on the beach which was neat. We could see the ocean from our balcony and walk out there whenever we wanted. I have to say- the caliber of beach along the gulf coast in no way stands up to other beaches of the world- namely ones along the Pacific coast, USA. But the kids (including Michael, Jen and Me) loved it, and aside from a few mishaps (ie: forgetting my bathing suit...Morgan and Michael getting stung by a jellyfish) we had a blast. (The aformentioned jellyfish story is a simultaneously hilarious and sad one, that I may or may not give details to later). Mike didn't get to go:( We missed you Mike!! It's weird how going on vacation without your spouse makes you feel out of sorts- like you forgot something very important... way more important than a bathing suit:)
















Dave and Morgan being remarkably good in the car on the way to the beach. Unfortunately Dave later ate some sand. Don't worry- a big sign on our beach said the bacteria were at "acceptable" levels. Blech!















Me and my beach shop rip-off babin' suit












Just walking down the block to the beach... what a life!

mini vacation!!!

We're going to Galveston this morning! We'll see how riding in a car for 5 hours, after working all night, with two kids under five goes... it should be a fun time once we get there. It's not the sunny blue beaches of Southern California- or heck- even Northern California, but it will work for a couple days get away. Some things I hope to accomplish on our trip (in no particular order)... 1. sew some buttons on a couple of my shirts 2. tan my pastey white thighs. 3. try to lure seagulls to poop on either Michael or Jen or both 4. take some cute pictures of Dave for the blog so Grammie Gilchrist can enjoy 5. eat crab 6. prevent the kids from getting swept away by deadly underwater currents 7. eat some other good fresh seafood 8.bury Morgan up to her neck in sand 9. take a picture of Morgan buried up to her neck in sand 10.keep Dave from eating the sand Morgan is buried in.
Those are my goals. Pretty lofty, I know. See ya in a couple of days!

Happenings

Just thought you might all enjoy a peek into this wonderfully exciting life of mine. Dad got home Saturday and I'm giving him Lovenox shots because his INR is too high (or is it low?). Anyhow-his blood is clotting too well, and now we must stop the clotting with drugs! Die clots. Die.
Anyway- I thought he might have had a clot 'cause he got a really red, warm area just on one side of his leg. He said he didn't want to go back to the hospital. I said "Too Bad". We were up late worrying about him, but he finally won. We're still watching that crazy leg.

Morgan and Dave played this weekend and created general havoc and hilarity together. We took them to the "big pool" yesterday, and I am kicking myself for not taking my camera for those bloggable moments. Dave loooved the pool. There were slides there and Morgan went down the slide a couple of times. I was waiting for CPS to show up and turn us in to the police for letting a not-even-two year old go down the slide, but she had a life preserver on- so I guess that's why they didn't take her away from us.





A couple of days ago Dave ate a dandelion that I handed him to look at. I pulled it away from his mouth a couple of times (the kid has a mean little grip), but I got distracted by a phone call or something- and the moment I looked away...
Of course- I did the trusty finger sweep and got one lowly dandelion petal. I can't believe he will swallow a dandelion, but he gags on macaroni and cheese. There are some things I guess I may never understand. I hope dandelions aren't poisonous.













Blueberry face!!
P.S. Morgan is the awesomest kid I know... Besides, Daze of course. Oh yeah- and all the Gilchrist cousins are pretty hip, too.

The Bee's Knees

My Dad had a knee replacement surgery a few days ago, so Dave and I went to see him today. He was up walking when we got there! I swear my Dad is the strongest man. He's going to have to die some horrible death because he's never going to accept just getting sick or old. I think he is just a person who loves life, and it shows in everything he does. I hope to be more of that kind of person. He is healing well and he gets to go home tomorrow! Hooray!














Nice hose, Dad- yeeouch!















Dave helps Pompa adjust the thermostat in his room. Is it too hot or too cold, Dave?

This one is for you nursing nerds

I heard a news blurb on NPR the other day about a study done at Dartmouth regarding the cost of medicare, and the management of chronically ill patients. To sum it up it talked about how medicare costs are driven up by futile, unneccessary, unwanted care given to people with terminal illnesses. The reason I was interested, though, is because they talked about how IHC is the model for low cost, high quality medical care as far as medicare is concerned. Compared to a few other regions, if the entire US would follow their system of managing chronically ill people, it would reduce the $123 billion dollar medicare debt by $40 billion. I felt proud that at BYU we did most of our training with IHC hospitals! But heck, maybe it just means they pay nurses crap there (which we know they do), and that's how they keep costs down. Anyway- just thought it might interest some of you to read the study.

She's a bad Mama Jamma

For all you mothers, and non-mothers, or people with mothers/ people who hope to be mothers one day- Happy Tuesday after Mother's day!
I thought some mother quotes from the Uncle John's Bathroom Reader might be in order.
"My mom always says, 'Keep your chin up.' That's how I ran into the door."
"My mom used to say, 'It doesn't matter how many kids you have... because one kid will take up 100 percent of your time, so more kids can't possibly take up more than 100 percent of your time.'" "Whenever anything went wrong in my life, my mother would say ' All things happen for the best'. And I would ask, 'Whose best?' And she'd say, 'Gotta go.'"












Marge with her new Oleander trees, and me getting the best gift of all -
the gift of a child's laaaftuh (laughter)-
while the children jumped on my bed. Hoorah!












New Mama Jamas for me n Jen

Bone Jr.

My good friend Sarah "Bone jr." Bohe came into town this weekend. Sarah is probably one of the funniest people I know. Mike and I had dinner with Sarah and Andi at a resturaunt called Taste of Asia- which I recommend because the meat is actual certified 'grade A' meat (unlike the gristly disgusto meat at most Asian food places). We stayed up too late and acted silly. It was just like old times, 'cept better 'cause Mike got to join us.

























Sarah, you slay me.

You can't always get what you want

Was it the Stones who said it? Well- whoever it was- it was never more true than this. The latest version (performed by the band at the local "burger and bock" night on Friday) became the theme song for this weekend. The moral of the story: never try to make a picture DVD for your Mom for Mother's day in 2 days with a 10 month old under foot. Also don't try to do it when you have fifty million other plans and dreams for the weekend, because making picture DVDs takes time. Oh yeah- and if you're going somewhere to watch a band sing Rolling Stones songs and eat burgers- don't pick Friday at 6:30pm... that is, not if you want to find a place to sit. One more thing- if the guy you order pizza from (because the burger line is too long) writes your order on a napkin and tells you in broken english that it will be 35 minutes before it's ready- save yourself the trouble and just get the foil pack dozen tamales. Just a little advice from me- and I do speak from experience.












We did enjoy some delicious edibles,












And potables,






And creamy gelato. Dave Found a hot little mamacita to sit by. We actually did get to hear the band and shake our booties, and generally had a splendid time. What can I say except- If you try sometimes you find, you get whatcha neeeed!

Whassssaaatt?

Call me crazy, but our 10 month old is now speaking in full sentences (if you count a slurred, barely discernable, long phrase as a full sentence- heck, maybe you're from Georgia!) I noticed while we were out walking that Dave was pointing at things and saying something. I took off the headphones (like a good Mommy) and inquired of the young lad what he was saying. He pointed to a tree and said "Whassaaaatt?". Shocked- I repeated it back. Well, that got the ball rolling- whasssaatt?? ssssatt? whsissss?. Our child. Smarter than all other children in the world because he is our child and he is learning to talk.
Oh Lil' Daze- what will you come up with next?