Grandpa Storey...

Harold Leon Storey, 91 ESCONDIDO -- Harold Leon Storey, 91, passed away Tuesday, June 23, 2009 after a long battle with cancer. After a 38 year career, Harold retired from United Airlines in 1980 as Manager of San Francisco Maintenance Base Inspection. Harold and his lovely wife, Doris, moved to Escondido in 1982 to the Escondido Country Club area. Harold, or "Hal" to his close friends and family, is survived by his wife, Doris; sister, Clarice Gibbs; children/spouse, Gary Storey and Betty Martinez, William and Maureen Storey, Carole Schubert, Patricia and Frank Tuitele, Richard Devenney and Dr. Nancy Jadallah and Denise and Brad Wolf. Harold is also survived by 18 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren. Born and raised in Wowila, South Dakota on February 23, 1918 to William and Gladys Storey. Harold was a remarkable high school football player. Later on during his career, he enjoyed traveling, playing softball, bowling and water skiing. He was also an avid golfer. Harold attended the University of California at Berkeley, took management classes at Stanford University and the University of Michigan. Harold was an active and sought-after "Toastmasters" speaker and very often was called on to give presentations to the upper management of United Airlines. Harold was very active for years in the Escondido Country Club, having served as the president of the Men's golf club, and also served as the president of the Escondido Country Club Community Association. In the past few years Harold and Doris enjoyed lawn bowling with the nationally ranked "Oaks North Lawn Bowling Association." Memorial services will be held on Thursday, July 2 at 10:00 a.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 341 South Kalmia St., Escondido

Bad week?

So when you take a loved one passing away, 3 days of migraines and very little sleep, finding out that your insurance company took 750.00$ out of your checking account without your knowledge, causing a snowball effect of fees to occur and they( your CREDIT UNION) dont care and actually loves it, refuses to refund ONE of them( the 25$ fees), having to explain your cause to them over and over once the insurance company refunds the money to prove that it wasnt your fault, but again they dont care...finding out that my ALMOST perfect credit score(over 800) had taken a nose-dive of over a hundred points( now 690) due to a reporting error from COMCAST cable saying a modem hadnt been returned ( which it had and now dealing with COMCAST over this ) and I found out about my credit score because we were so enraged at said CREDIT union not refunding ONE of the fees that we promptly took several hours on friday to close out our accounts and move our business to another CU and they had to run a credit score, and thats how I found out about my credit rating and supposed collections issue.....

After such a terrible week we had hoped for a better weekend. Saturday was a beautiful day we had high hopes of a lovely hike and repeat of last summer where we could pack Tristan and enjoy the outdoors.....

Who are we kidding? Do we forget what child we have? He actually cried and screamed about 70% of the entire time. Unless he wasnt in the pack. However thinking that he would be stop screaming once he was out of the pack near the bottom we took him out and Jonathan carried him the rest of the way crying and screaming till we reached the car. I cant imagine what people must think of us. Jonathan and I scratched off another beloved summer activity off our list. No camping, and now no hiking until Tristan is older. Needless to say we got the screaming devil child in the car held on to eachothers hand and looked at one another and for the 1000th time and said " will he be our last?" We now dont attend Church on sundays and wont until he can attend nursery, ( unless its our week with Elijiah and then its tag team or one of us stays home) and its all we can do to keep it together when hes not in one of his "angelic" moods.

Saturday night things just got better. I got a call from our dear friend Kate who also happens to be one of our renters informing us that there was a leak, or something as our basement was flooding. Well after talking to her and figuring out where the leak was, it was determined that in the moving in of the last renters they stacked their many boxes into the furnace room, moving the drain tube from the drain and causing the overflow to run from the furnace room to the basement living room. So we trekked down to SLC ( not what we were excited to do on a Saturday night ) to rent the necessary items pulled up the carpet, sucked up the water, and left them with a fan going to dry out the pad and carpet. We are just hoping no lasting damage will have been done. We just put the house up for sale again two weeks ago so I say the timing couldnt have been more perfect huh? An honest mistake and good thing Kate is like family, but not fun. On another note about RENTERS - it came to our attention that while we left several items at our home including some outdoor furniture - one of the more expensive items (the fire pit) was intentionally destroyed by the guys we evicted. Note to self. While doing background checks, references and employment checks - and all of them coming back GLOWING- never rent to single guys again.
I put this photo of Tristan up because it is one of him that will remind me during weeks and weekends such as this --- We do love him so so much!!!!

***Grandpas funeral will be this week in San Diego on Thursday. I will be leaving Tristan with Jonathans mom as there is no way I can travel in the car with him 11 hours by myself as Jonathan cant take the time away from work. Elijiah and I will have ( I hope) some good quality time together**

Update

Grandpa slipped into a coma yesterday morning and passed away around 2:20 pm yesterday afternoon. It has all happened so quickly and while one part of me is glad he didnt suffer and went quickly, another part is upset that I didnt get to see him again. I had planned on leaving today to see him, had hoped to sit with him, hold his hand, talk to him, share memories, tell him how much he meant to me and how much I loved him. We had no idea that when he was admitted to the hospital this weekend and released on Sunday, that it would be two days. We thought it might be a week or two. Ive been an emotional wreck, had some peace yesterday but feeling somewhat numb at the moment. Im hoping that spending some time going through photos and thinking about the memories I have of him and writing those down, with help sort through my grief, but for now there is a lot of sadness. I know hes free of pain, and with the knowledge I have of the gospel, there is comfort of where he is, but there is still a lot to process with someone dying. Jonathan has been my rock as usual, made it possible to fly on a moments whim without a thought of the cost, and understands how difficult it is to loose someone you love dearly. What would I do without him? It reminds me of my grandparents. Where you found one you found the other....
(on my sisters raegans blog ( see blog roll ) she put up a couple great shots of him...this is just how I remember him...full of laughter and love...)

Fathers day and stuff

WOW- things are crazy around our household...so much going on that Ive been having a hard time keeping up on the blogging. But a quick recap...a few weeks ago it was announced that my company was going around the country doing a promo for the upcoming "Christmas carol" movie and would be stopping in Utah. As it so happened they would be coming to Ogden and I was thrilled to have such an event coming through our ghetto town!!! So I got Elijiah all excited and dragged us out after work for this one day event. It was going to be a blast. Well we happened to arrive at the same time as everyone else in town, and what was going to be a fun evening turned into a complete disaster as the wait to tour the trains and see a clip of the movie, was almost two hours!!! So instead of standing in line, we let Elijiah jump onto some of the older trains in the yard and we headed home. Night not so fun...but we tried. :(


Over fathers day weekend I had my best girlfriends over for a swim party on saturday hoping that the rain would cease...however it was a constant downpour. While we did our best to enjoy eachothers company and let the kids play in the pool Jonathan spent 10 hours at the house completely re-doing the front landscaping in the yard...in the pouring rain. He bought plants, pulled out old yucky bushes, took out rocks, brought in soil, leveled the planters, hauled in these bricks, (this is just one side of the house- and the smaller side of it too) he worked all day on saturday and then all morning sunday as well...It looks soooo much better than before and I love it. As we mentioned before-we put the house up for sale again and while the inside was completely redone in 2007 the outside needed some updating...and so the projects have begun!!
On Sunday I got up to assemble my burgers and fries for the dads and grandfathers in my life. (see bakerella on blog roll) didnt turn out as cute as hers did, but it was still a lot of fun. We stopped by and spent some time with my dad before heading down to see Jonathans parents in Lehi for a few hours in the afternoon. All in all it was a busy day, but wonderful day, spent with the men that mean so much to us. I want to send a special shout out to my husband for being such a great father and step father. He is such an incredible man and example to our sons and I am so lucky to be his wife.
**I will add that while we have had some great things going on over the weekend my grandfathers cancer returned and he was hospitalized. He decided to refuse treatment and signed a DNR. He returned home for what little time he has left which the doctors estimated could be days to just a few weeks at most. I will be headed to CA tomorrow to say goodbye to my beloved grandfather for the last time.**

Swimming Anyone?

Elijiah loves to spend his time swimming especially now that he as become an "excellent" swimmer. (his words not mine) HOWEVER, he gets all bent out of shape if he cant find his beloved goggles and has come inside to yell at me on more than one occasion to find them for him if they are missing, Or to call grandma to see if she knows where they are, or to tell me Ill need to buy him new ones if he cant find them( yea right.) Because he cant swim if he doesnt have goggles you see! But really, I am very excited that he is fast becoming a little fish, and loves to hop in and out of the pool. It helps that the pool is heated to 90 degrees too. Its been especially lovely with all the rain and cold June weather we have been experiencing dont ya think?? :)

Cute Things Tristan

Tristan has been doing some really cute things and I wanted to make sure I didnt forget them:

• when blowing on some hot pancakes the other day Tristan tried to do the same but hasnt mastered the art of blowing out..all he does is put his food to his nose and inhales and exhales.....


• he fell down while running around the pool naked and scraped his knee. while in the car today he discovered his "owie"(sp?). instead of the morning screams in the car, his "owie" was quite entertaining for most of the commute..he kept touching and poking it.


• Tristan has mastered the two arm hug. Anytime you pick him up he will now wrap both arms around your neck and squeeze tight. Ahhhh there really isnt anything like getting hugs from our baby.


• Now that he is feeling better he is like a different child again. Laughing and playing...case in point...He stands at the end of his crib crying or (screaming in his case) for you, but when he sees you coming he will immediately fall to the floor of the crib curl up in the fetal position and bury his head. (thinking that he is hiding from you) Its hilarious! All you have to say is" Where is Tristan?" and play peek a boo! and the game begins...


• He loves books. His favorite thing to do is get a book and have you read to him. Any book. Any time, anywhere.

Jonathans Bday!

We had a little scare with our camera earlier in the week where we thought we couldnt download and I was worried! All the photos that I had been taking and I wondered how I was going to keep up my blogging! But not to worry! My fabulous hubby figured it out and so now Im catching up! I couldnt let another day go by without documenting our weekend last week and filling you all in on Jonathans lovely birthday! As previously mentioned it also happened to fall on the most miserable weekend for us with Tristan being so ill --so all in all, Jonathan kinda didnt get the hoopla he deserved, but we did put in a valiant effort to make his day special. I got up early in the morning, making sure to take the crazy sick child with me to the store so I could gather the necessary ingredients to make him a triple layer red velvet cake....with homemade cream cheese icing. Yummy.

However from the photo below I think I made quite a bit dont you think? I never did capture a picture of the cake completed because the day got a bit crazy as it went on....however here it is just out of the oven, or two of the three layers....

Now when these two are wrestling with eachother I cant help but get happy inside. It brings true joy to my heart when Jonathan makes the boys giggle and laugh....(this has nothing to do with his birthday except that it did occur on his birthday......)

Now for the grand opening of his ONE present- TA-DAH....(dont feel sorry for him...with his starting a new job he went out and bought himself a ton of new clothes so we agreed that would be his bday presents)...but I couldnt let the day go by completely without a birthday present to open...and low and behold what could it be....?????

....a new shirt! But let me say its not just ANY shirt...no its a shirt that I looked high and low for. He as you may know has a love of music and the trumpet. So I found this piece and knew Jonathan would love it. And he did.

We had planned to go out that night for dinner and a movie - a date night just the two of us so I had my mom snap a picture of us before we left. However we had a few things to get done before we could enjoy our evening. As I mentioned we left our sick bugs and headed down to deal with a few housekeeping items with our rental house - one being changing out the locks on the house, the other was dealing with the left furniture from the evicted renters. Well we thought that we would just rent a truck from home depot and take the stuff to DI. It wasnt so simple. We waited two hours for a truck to become available and once we got the stuff loaded and to D.I. they wouldnt take it. So.....we had to haul the crap out to the landfill and pay to dump it. All said and done the afternoon chore that we thought would be a simple task took us 5 hours to accomplish. Good thing Jonathan and I were looking forward to spending some time together huh?! But sad...what a way to spend a birthday....

Anyway we headed down to the gateway after returning the truck and spending way too much money on the ridiculous afternoon to eat a lovely meal and see a totally awesome movie- STAR TREK! WE LOVED it and we had a great night. I hope that Jonathan, in spite of the ups and downs of the sick baby, and crazy afternoon, managed to enjoy his birthday. I want him to know that I love him with all my heart, and each year that passes I have more and more fun with him and can hardly believe that we havent been together our whole lives. So even though this post is now a week late....Happy birthday honey!!!!!

Quilting Project- Ha!

I think it all began in kindergarten - yes I believe it did. I remember clear as day my first coloring project, being asked to sit quietly at the table, given a sheet of paper with a picture on it. I was given a box of crayons and asked to fill in the picture, and if I could do my very best to stay in the lines. I saw other kids reach for a variety of crayons very intent on the task at hand, and all I could think about is when I could get back outside to play-- for bah!!! Coloring was BORING! Duh, why would ANYONE pick lots of colors, when I could be done with the picture with just ONE color and be back outside and playing in 2 minutes flat? And the whole staying in the lines thing? That requires too much effort and concentration. Let me just get this dumb picture colored already!( now Im sure all this didnt EXACTLY go through my 4 year old mind, but I will say pretty close.) Is it any wonder my parents put me in gymnastics at 4, or that I loved sports my whole life? Now you may also wonder why I have decided to try anything crafty at this time in life huh? Well blame my wonderful dear friend Sarah. Last summer she came to visit and brought with her this here blanket for Tristan:

I love it! Her sister- ( on my blog roll- Katie NY - had a wonderful tutorial on her blog) and I thought um, looks simple enough and I would love to create something for my boys that they can have from ME! I thought---- requires minimal sewing( or so I thought) and I would create a single bed blanket. So I began my online fabric search. Oh the choices as I searched the Internet for weeks trying to figure out color and theme combinations. The endless possibilities! I wanted something that could grow with the boys but likewise would stand the test of wear and tear. Goodness its also hard to find enough of certain materials and fabric on-line too! Needless to say I found what I was looking for or enough of things to get started. However I grossly under estimated the cost of making quilts! I think in total I have spent a bit over 250$ for all needed materials! CRAZY! Anyway I digress....After all of my store shopping and Internet buying I still needed to fill in a few pieces of fabric for my blankets and decided to try a quilt shop in Ogden....LOW and BEHOLD I walked into a MECCA of the MOST amazing fabrics I could ever find! My mother and I were DYING. WHO would have known that the every fabric I could ever want I could have found right here in Ogden???

Anyway- This is Elijiahs quilt- after thinking I was going to do a single quilt for each boy, and measuring the fabric and cutting the pieces, I realized that THIS was only 1/2 of the single quilt. So I quickly came to my senses and decided to do a lap quilt. As who am I kidding. This is my first sewing project and really...I have no idea what I am doing. My own mother who owns a sewing business thinks im crazy. As she asked me on several occasions " So Amber whats next, and I said I dont know- lets see...dont we just cut the fabric, and put it with the backing with the fluffy stuff inbetween and then pin it and run it through the sewing machine a few times to make it stay together and its done?" Needless to say my Mother really thought that was funny! So she took this opportunity for sewing lessons 101.

But what do you think of the fabric...? I do like the colors and theme if I do say so myself!

Here my mother is showing me all the ins and outs of the sewing machine. I did a few rows of the above and I stand firm that my original thought about sewing is true. I hate it. I love love love the end result. But sitting still and the tedious nature of sewing???? BORING. So I have to figure out how to get over this, because I cant have my mother make these quilts for me. It took me FOREVER to sew even just three of these panels and I think my mom was tired of watching me and it was painful for her to see me not even know how to do the bobbin thing...that is what its called right?

Instead of having my mother watch me go sooo sloooowwww she just whips the whole thing together and I was in awe as I have always been my whole life. She is amazing. She can do anything, make anything. My mother can think up things in her head and create stuff, and truly is the most incredible sewer ive ever seen. Now shes done so many different things that I know she feels more out of her element with clothes and fabric vs bags or things that require her industrial machine, but its amazing to see someone so quick on a sewing machine so I just let her go...promising her that I was taking good notes because I did want to learn.....but really it would take me 4x as long.....

I think my mom is secretly happy. It makes me really happy. I want to learn something new...even if it kills me. And I have to say it just might. I literally dread thinking about sitting at the sewing machine again or doing something so tedious over and over again, but what I have to remember is the outcome of what sewing produces....and the quilts that I want to make - and am making for our boys.

So all I have to do is look at the fabric and remember that in the end a beautiful quilt will be the result and that I can do anything. I have climbed mountains, given birth, survived 3 horrific pregnancies, migraines, a broken heart, given a child up for adoption, had many bodily injuries, pushed myself to physical exhaustion, I can make a quilt, I can sit at a sewing machine...I can I can I can.

Exhaustion from a sick child

As I write this I think to myself- do we really have a child that is a wuss? Perhaps - perhaps not... but I do know that exhaustion is not even close to describing the how we feel today. Tristan has indeed fell ill again, and with an ER visit today we know it isnt life threatening. It started Friday night with a screaming in pain and the thrashing around child and not sure what was going on..... His only consolation was laying on me causing me to get little if any sleep during the night..... His fever spiked for which we gave Tristan alternates of Tylenol and Motrin again, and assumed that it was the return of the molars that keep bothering him. Saturday morning came and Tristan was moody and irritable...not eating much and being very cranky. However it was Jonathans birthday( a separate post on that to come) and we had MUCH going on. We did our best to comfort Tristan but we had lot of things to deal with---( renters wise, bday wise, and a date night to come) so Jonathan and I left Bugs and Elijiah in the caring and capable hands of my mother and Layne for the afternoon and evening. We checked in throughout the night and it was apparent that he was still not eating much and needed a lot of TLC. However my mother continued to give pain meds and we just thought as before that he was teething. Upon our return around 10 pm that night however things got worse. Tristan would not sleep and was up every hour again on the hour but instead of letting me hold him and rock him, he was grabbing at his mouth, banging his head, screaming in pain, pulling at his PJs, running around the room, pulling at the bed, crying- then falling into a listless sleep. Finally at 3am I left our bedroom so Jonathan could sleep and I moved into Tristans room and this repeated until morning continuing to monitor his fever etc. He would calm down in short durations to sleep only after exhaustion set in, but I didnt sleep much more than minutes at a time as he was stuck upon my chest like a monkey and I was terribly worried. After refusing his morning bottle again and Jonathans suggestion of a bath which he crawled out of, we called the doctor and he suggested we take Tristan right away to the ER. However- this is where we would have longed for Jonathans brother Dustin to be around. For all the ER doc did was check Tristans ears- Clear, heart, - fine, mouth- he has a case of thrush. So Thrush is what has been causing him for 2 straight days to be I guess in inconsolable amounts of pain??? Who knows... So we are now treating him with medication for that and I am hoping tonight there will be sleep for the Bechtold Clan. I did get a nap this afternoon however its only 4 pm and I feel like Im walking around in the twilight zone. Not since the days of Tristan being a newborn and his Colic have I been this tired nor have I felt this helpless when our child has been in so much pain. Its truly odd to be up in the middle of the night sitting on the floor of the nursery with a baby running around you screaming in pain, hitting themselves, coming to you and there is nothing you can do but wait for them to get so tired that they collapse from exhaustion. Fun times.

Simple Abundance

***Update on Tristan- He has for the last few days returned to his incredible joyful self. Jonathan and I have our little bugs back and we are enjoying him so very much. He is laughing, teasing, smiling, eating, sleeping, and overall being the baby that we enjoy and know. We contribute much of the last 3 weeks to his teething and long road trip and grateful that the alien has since departed. I must say that some of his new "tricks" is that he now signs "please" for crackers and has an insatiable appetite for anything in that food group, and I dont know if he will now allow one vegetable to pass his lips but - he is still growing so what can I say?

I wanted to write a few things that have been on my mind for the last week or so and start off by saying that I have indeed kept up my promise to self of reading good books. I got side tracked again by some "beach reads" but I picked up a book called "Simple Abundance" by Sarah Ban Breathnach which was published in 1995. It has been a breath of fresh air. A couple of years ago in General Conference it was discussed- having a gratitude log. For which when I have a bad day or week, I stop and take a moment to assess what I am grateful for at that second, to remind myself of my blessings. However this woman in her book published 14 years ago, suggested the same thing. She dedicated several years in writing this book, and she did that very thing for an entire year. A daily gratitude journal. She wrote the following which was very powerful which is why I wanted to capture it so I could return to this post in the future to re-read:

Ill first start with a quote by Margaret Young that Ive been pondering for several days:
"Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things or more money in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. They way it actually works is the reverse. You MUST first BE who you really are, then, DO what you need to do in order to HAVE what you really want."

This struck me as important for several reasons. First I realized a very important thing about myself in the last week or so. That I have gone about DOING things because I wanted to prove that I was capable and competent to the WORLD. To OTHERS to SELF. I worked hard all through college, didnt ask for help, finished in 3 years once I got my act together and didnt pursue what I wanted to do in the first place because of many reasons but did a different path because the end goal of a college degree was more important. I wanted to complete that GOAL, rather than be true to myself. I then went into a field where money was the factor rather than be true to myself and my heart because I had to provide for my family at the time. I made a choice. I actually never regretted it at the time. We all make choices and I was okay with it. However I have felt empty with my choice of career and wondered if I followed my heart the first time would I feel the same emptiness now? I will never know. I have made decision after decision in good faith that things would work out for the best- and somethings have far exceeded my wildest dreams and others have fallen flat. Thats life right? :) However............................
It has become apparent that my once thriving 6 yr old, is struggling and needs me more and more, and our 1 yr old while is in a good day care isnt getting his needs met consistently and while we cant change things over night, we will do what we can to change things for the future.

Let me share with you the foreward to the book that has made me ponder many things and see what her thoughts stir in you:

..."What I wanted to write was a book that would show me how to reconcile my deepest spiritual, authentic and creative longings with often overwhelming and conflicting commitments to my husband, children, mother, work at home, work in the world, siblings, friends and community. I knew I wasnt the only woman hurtling through real life as if it were an out of body experience. I knew I wasnt the only woman frazzled, depressed, worn to a raveling. But I also knew I certainly wasnt the woman with the answers. I didnt even know the questions.
I wanted so much- money, success, recognition, genuine expression- but had no clue as to what I truly needed. At times my passionate hungers were so voracious I could deal with them only through denial. I was a workaholic, careaholic and perfectionist. I couldnt remember the last time I was kind to myself.....more often than I was comfortable to admit I was envious, constantly comparing myself to others only to become resentful because of what seemed to be missing from my life, although I couldnt have told you what it was. I had so much-----I felt as if I didnt have the right to want more...Money was an emotionally charged issue that controlled my ability to be happy....frustrated and unable to fathom why some women appeared to lead much more fulfilling lives- even though I was connecting all the dots I careened between feeling that I was frittering my life away to feeling that I was sacrificing it on the alter of my own ambitions. I was a woman in desperate need of SIMPLE ABUNDANCE.
...During this time of profound introspection six practical creative principals- gratitude, simplicity, order, harmony, beauty and joy became the catalysts that helped me define a life of my own. Feeling confident again , I proposed writing a downshifting lifestyle book for women who want, as I do, to live by their own lights....
.....SIMPLE ABUNDANCE has reminded me what to do with a few loaves and fishes and has shown me how to spin straw into gold. SIMPLE ABUNDANCE brought me to the awareness that the reason I was so unhappy, frustrated, resentful, envious, was because I wasnt living the live for which I was created. I try to now. I dont have a million dollars in the bank, but I realize that abundance and lack -are parallel realities; every day I make the choice of which to inhabit. Finding a quiet center in which to create and sustain an AUTHENTIC life has become as essential as breathing......."

It is my personal journey to find my authentic life and what will make me happy. Over the next little while Im excited to see what changes will be in store for me....little or big. Stay tuned...........

Gratitude Log

1. A house that is still standing.
2. A fabulous, dear, kind, amazing hubby.
3. boyz that I adore beyond words
4. water with fresh lemon
5. a daily jog
6. looking forward to a weekend of fun......
7. a quiet morning commute.
8. a beautiful sunny day.

Going Crazy?

Tristan has gone and been replaced by an alien. Thats all I can think of. He is teething yes. Molars are coming through yes. Fever is spiking and nights are difficult. Heck days are difficult. Hes cranky, listless, inconsolable(Tylenol, and Motrin still dont make a dent) and its making Jonathan and I miserable in the process. After landing in the ER again for a migraine which I can only attribute to lack of sleep due to Tristans fever several nights last week, and enduring daycare calls to me saying that I had to pick our child up as he was too difficult to handle, we have had enough. Oh Sundays return migraine- in which no ER visit was necessary, but an Aleve, Imitrex, Phenergan, and a Barbiturate was required along with 4 hours of horrible pain before it finally went away- shall I say Im tired? Or that Ive had enough of the alien that has taken our Tristan? Enough of the screaming, crying and ridiculous behavior? YES! Add insult to injury when Tristan is feeling okay, he is fiercely independent wont hold my hand when going anywhere, wants to play near the stairs at the playground rather than on the playset, and screams when he is taken anywhere he doesnt want to go. Oh and also any car ride still requires nerves of steel as the crying and screaming didnt end with the return trip from Az last week. I commented to Jonathan that perhaps we have the child that only a parent can love.

My kind and dear mother and step father Layne said at the dinner table- that they dont have the same issues when they are watching him- that he is very sweet. I figure its the same when Jonathans mother watches Tristan as well, after all she does ask to do it again...and why would she if he was a tyrant everytime right? GREAT- so he is only this way with US? Good times. Oh how I love our son. I really do, but its been a very long week - and having to hear him up and screaming from 1:30 to 4am last night was just about all I could take. ( He was fine grandmothers- rest assured. No fever, not wet, I brought him in to bed with us thinking he was sickly- but no- he didnt cry just wanted to play. So back in his bed he went and we just laid there listening to him cry away till he fell asleep) Im just hoping that this week will be a much better one from last. Pray for us!!! :)