Where Can Mommy Run Away to?

It's been a rough road since I returned from Tucson at the beginning of February. The last week has been the worst. Rough communication with the hubby drove me a little batty. And a very sick and crying nighttime baby has me sleep deprived and frazzled.

Last week I threatened to run away twice. Were do mommies go when they lose it?

Monday we met with a pediatric Gastroenterologist. Dillon has suffered for what seems like his whole little life with gas. It has gotten worse and worse over time. Finally I was becoming desperate so I started documenting our problems to our pediatrician. I'm SO thankful for Group Health and their online system. Emailing my doctor at 1 am in the morning does a lot for my peace of mind.

She put in a referral to the Gastroenterologist and a prescription for Zantac, which seemed to help a little, but not a lot. The Gastro doctor put him on Omeprazol (sp?) instead because it's a stronger medication. We aren't sure how well it's working yet because it's only been three days but I'm hopeful.

Then Tuesday we were blessed by someone else's misfortune. :) Someone cancelled their appointment with the speech therapist and we were able to snag it. So we had a feeding evaluation and D is food averse. :( Basically he's had so much pain from trying to eat that he doesn't like food anymore. He bit into a Cheerios and immediately threw up... it barely even touched his tongue. The therapist was amazing and wonderful. She gave us some thickening gel for his formula. Since we started it he hasn't thrown or spit up! That alone is a miracle.

But last night was the roughest night in awhile. I'm pretty patient with littlest man usually. I know he's in pain, not trying to be stubborn so I'll hold him, when he's up at night. Last night he cried, screamed, writhed, and was miserable for two hours before I gave up. My wonderful husband took over, even though he had to get up at 5 am for work. I was in tears and working on just 30 minutes of sleep.

I'm not sure what it is, but daddy seems to have the magic touch when putting baby to sleep. I don't always approve of his methods, but they seem to work.

I'm thankful for a kind husband, but I'm also thankful for an amazing friend. She watches the boys part time (and sometimes not so part time) and she texted me today that Dillon was yanking on his ear, fussy while eating, and crying a lot. And he only slept for 30 minutes all day.

Thank God for a wonderful friend. And I'm thankful I listened to her because I called the doctor and got him in... less than an hour after I called. Again, thank you Group Health Olympia! Sure enough, a bad double ear infection.

My poor little man. He is such a happy baby when he's feeling well. He's smart and sweet and a friendly little boy. Even the doctor we saw commented about how he seems older than almost 9 months.

I'm thankful this day is over... and I'm praying for a better night's sleep. I'm praying for healing for my littlest boy. And I'm prayerfully thankful for a wonderful friend who loves and cares about my boys.

Tucson 2014 - Day 5 and Day 6

And on Day 5 the Seahawks won the Superbowl. Nothing else mattered in our world. Food and Fun!

Day 6 was a planned site seeing day. So no shows for me. I'm cutting my show schedule by almost half. But since I'm pretty much out of money that's not such a bad thing.

We left the house early and headed to Tombstone. Oh my fun! We could have spent the entire day there but we actually had booked two things today so we only had a few hours in Tucson.

The first thing we did when we arrived is dress up and have our photos taken. I was, of course, an outlaw. Marshal was a Sheriff. And my mom was a Floozy. hahahahaha It was great. Marshal had so much fun.

We headed to a bank robbery next. Thankfully they schedule all their killins in Tombstone. ;)

The scene of the bank robbery.

Shooting at one of the bad guys from the show.

After Tombstone we high tailed it to the Karchner Caverns. You have to be there one hour before your show time, but as with most of those warnings it's mostly important only on busy days. Monday is not a busy day. We were a few minutes late and still had plenty of time. There is a movie that plays every 15 minutes and we had time to watch most of it before the guide called our time.

You are not allowed to bring ANYTHING into the cave. Seriously. No photos are allowed, which of course drove me bonkers.

Kids are not allowed in the big room tour. We went on the smaller tour in the Rotunda/Throne room. You take a little tram up to the entrance - after storing all your stuff in a locker. They don't even want you to take off a coat or sweatshirt without rolling it up so that no lint comes off. As you walk into the cave you go through several rooms. One sprays you with a fine mist of water to hopefully water you down so you don't lose too much skin or lint.

And you cannot touch anything except the railing. This created quite a challenge with Marshal who was the only kid on the tour. He did awesome. It was hard and he asked lots of questions while the guide was speaking, but for a four year old I could not have expected better. In order to make sure he didn't touch anything I ended up carrying him half the tour. He is getting heavy!

This cave system is incredible. It's hot and humid and I actually felt a little claustrophobic. Toward the end I felt like it was hard to breath - but that could also be because I was carrying a 4 year old!

The story of how this cave was found is amazing and, as usual, I am in awe of God's majesty in nature. It boggles my mind to see the amazing formations in the cave - from stalactites, stalagmites, soda straws, "bacon", and "popcorn" (they use a lot of food names to describe some of the formations) - the beauty is surreal. And thinking about how long it takes to form things is beyond comprehension.

The Throne Room

Soda Straws

If you are ever in Arizona and can manage it, check out this cave. It will blow your mind. Just don't wear a sweatshirt or have claustrophobia!

Tomorrow we get back to shopping. Though at a much slower pace and smaller scale.

Tucson 2014 - Day 4 - Too Tired to Blog

Day four is done and gone. I'm seriously out of money - I can't use the credit card anymore. :) I've got some cash left so I'm hoarding it until I find something really unusual that I need to take home. And some basics. I want to get some lobster clasps at one of the shows where I know there's a big vendor.

So we will be doing more site seeing than I anticipated. :)

But day four was still fun because we took Marshal with us. I'm trying to create a new rock hound in him. One of the vendors at the 22nd Street show gave him an Ammonite for free. He was pretty excited to see all the fossils too. Grandma bought him a dinosaur shirt. And I found a book I want to get him someday when he's a little older.

He wouldn't stand in front of it to take a photo so I had to be sneaky.

This nice vendor gave him an ammonite.

Dinosaur!

Helping mommy and grandma find pretty Copals.

Our most exciting find - a mosquito perfectly preserved in Copal - which is not Amber because it's too "young".

 

Marshal started getting tired so we left to go to another show and got some lunch. I ordered a hot dog. Yup. I'm a gringo. I did try a new soda though!

Yummy!

Seeing all the minerals and crystals make me appreciate the magnitude of God's brilliance. Our earth produces some of the most amazing things. God's art!

 

 

If you've never been to these shows you would probably feel a little creeped out. Vendors take over entire hotels and set up their goods for sale in the rooms. It's so weird.

 

The "showrooms"



Marshal had a lot of patience but he was starting to touch everything and it was driving me nuts. So we bribed him with some hot chocolate. It didn't help.

He finally got to buy some things ... but he had to narrow it down to 5 ... he wanted 20!

The funnest part for Marshal was the golf cart shuttle we got to ride on to and from our car. It's the little things in life!

Can someone explain why this McDonalds is guarded by a T-Rex? :)

We got home early and everyone but me went into the hot tub and enjoyed the view while I went through my purchases and started cataloging things.

Not too shabby.

And we were all tired...mom crashed on the couch. :)

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzz

Tucson 2014 - Day Three - I Am Out of Money

It's amazing how fast you can spend money...Seriously amazing. Let's just say that I spent 3/4 of my budget for the whole trip today! I got some amazingly beautiful things but I still have seven days here!!!

Thankfully, anything else I buy over the next week is just extra frosting on the cake. We will go to mostly fossil and rock shows instead of the gems and beads and silver.

I had us booked for a new show every day but that itinerary is already out the window. I'm hoping we can head over to the Pueblo show. We spent all day at JOGS today.

I'm pretty sure that Marshal has a super sensitivity to light. He can hardly stand to go outside and if there's ANY direct sunlight he shuts his eyes. Being in Washington it doesn't manifest itself a whole lot. :) But here in Tucson he's having a hard time being outside. His nanny had to go buy him a pair of sunglasses!

My cool dude.

Mom found some pretty Amethyst crystals.

Explaining to Marshal where the crystals came from.

The outside...

And the inside...tada!!!

Picking out his very own Ammonite

Russian nesting dolls



Rutillated Quartz

Lots of rainbow ammonites

Amber pendants - some I'll list in my Etsy shop but some I can't wait to design with!

More Amber pendants.

Porcelain Jasper doubles for making a butterfly! :)

Pink Lacey Agate (they called it an official name and I can't remember it right now)

Crazy Lace Agate

 It's exhausting walking all day. Or the more likely story is I'm super out of shape.

Tucson Trip - Day Two - Holy Fossils Batman

As exhausted as I was last night, tonight I can barely keep my eyes open. And it's only 7!

Mom and I slept in more than we had planned so didn't get out of the house until almost 9. The first show we went to started at 9 but when we got there it wasn't busy at all. There were still people setting up. I've never understood that. You know when the show starts, right? How are you not set up? I did meet one vendor who didn't even get his stuff from UPS, even though it was supposed to be there two days ago. So in that case, I understand.

We didn't take more than a couple of hours to go through this show. It had amazing fossils.

Super gorgeous Ammonite - Huge ... and Expensive!

Roar!

These scare me!

We got some beautiful fossil pendants that I'll be listing on my Etsy supply shop eventually.

I've never seen such a fancy porta potty! It totally cracked me up and I had to take a photo.

World's fanciest porta-potty.

Pretty carved quartz (?) or some sort of stone.

After the first show, we decided we had time to go to JOGS, which is a huge show. So huge we barely made it 1/4 of the way through in 4 hours!

One of my favorite stones - Labradorite!

This is just a hallway area...you can see how it goes on and on and on.

 

Beautiful Ammonite with amazing flashes of color

Amazing and beautiful real ivory made from OLD recycled pieces like piano keys, billiard balls, etc.

Peitersite Cabochons - These will eventually be on my supply shop site.

We ended the day with some homemade Lemon merengue pie...yummy!!!

I haven't been this tired in a long time. Tomorrow starts another busy day so I am going to go to bed early tonight.