I Hate ADD, I Don't Care, I'm Sick of It!

I'm a temp.  I mean this whole blog thing was first dreamed up while I was temping (the most boring job ever too! - seriously, it was boring! really really boring!)  I'm working a different gig now, but I'm still a temp.  Heck I once turned a 9 month temp gig into a 7 year temp gig (that was cool because it was a benefited position so I didn't mind that I was capped at 30 hours a week, sometimes I filled my extra time with a second temp job, sometimes with just being a wife, sometimes being a mom, sometimes writing or gaming).  Honestly, if it weren't for the insurance issue there are tons and tons of things I love about temping.  If I could temp permanently, that might be a good thing.

I've been wondering all year what I should do for a "real" job.  I mean temping is great, but it's hardly consistent, it rarely offers insurance (something it looks like my husband will not be able to provide for our family), and it doesn't lend itself to planning for any kind of future stability and long term family plans.  I've sat down many times to write asking for career advice.  I mean I'm good at lots of things, I have varied interests, I have a bachelor's degree, and I'd love to pursue a career that catches my interests even if it means going back to school.  Unfortunately, I have a tendency to get bored.  Really bored.  Unworkable, employee block, bored.  The kind of bored that just can't be pushed through.  I'm really reluctant to admit I'm there again.

Today: Brighton

Hopefully, if all goes according to plan Brighton and his Mom will be flying to Seattle Children's hospital in the morning.  He will go in for surgery once again in the afternoon and he will hopefully be finally getting food into his intestines and digesting the nutrients and start to grow!  Please pray for this.  If tomorrow's surgery fails the next step is so scary, a central line would have to be put in.  These can have so many complications and Brighton is so small still.

Thank you all for your prayers.  I hope to write about our trip to Seattle and all sorts of crazy off the wall stuff soon.  Things have just been so crazy!  I got to help settle a friend after her kids got caught in the middle of a police raid that resulted in gunfire!  So glad I missed that bit of crazy!

UPDATE:  As of one hour ago Mom and Baby are in the air with my Uncle.  The skies are clear with no more than scattered wisps of clouds along the mountains.  The flight will be direct and mostly uneventful through the grace of God.  I will update this post again when I have more information!

UPDATE 2:  They landed safely and Brighton is at Children's Hospital.  They are prepping him for surgery.  The doctors are very nervous and will not be putting Brighton under as it is too risky.  He will be awake for the surgery like he was last Friday.  Prayers are needed for this crucial step!!!

UPDATE 3:  Brighton's surgery has been declared a success.  I don't have details at this time, I believe this means the J tube is fixed in place.  4 doctors participated in this delicate surgery.

Prayer Request for Brighton

Last fall my friend had a baby boy named Brighton, he is a beautiful happy boy, but he is suspected to have MITO (mitochondrial disease), and as such his body is failing him.  He can not digest normal foods, he has a feeding tube into his stomach and even this is failing him as he vomits most of his feeds.  Last week it was my honor to take him to Seattle for surgery for a better tube, and my great saddness that this surgery (attempted twice in two days) was not successful.  Both times they went into his stomach and noticed problems with his organs.  They pushed a new tube in, but were unable to get a tube into his small intestine as the valve was closed firm and would not open.  Without that valve opening food can not be digested properly and he will not be able to grow bigger (he looks like he is only a couple months old he's so small already).  The stress and actions of his organs as observed at the hospital were also worrying.  Please pray for healing and comfort for this little boy.  He is home with his loving family right now, but next week he and his mother will be traveling back to Children's Hospital in Seattle to try once again to complete this surgery.  He is being given feeds, but they are not all going in.

With This Ring I Thee Wed

Once again, Orcrist has written a wonderful piece about a special event we shared this week! I'm so blessed that he is not only my husband, but so wonderfully thoughtful and thought provoking!
-KtC


For our 10th anniversary my wife and I gave each other custom designed, matching wedding band tattoos on our left ring fingers. It is something we had talked about earlier in our marriage and we felt it was the right time to do it. We won't stop wearing the gold wedding rings we gave each other when we confirmed our vows on our wedding day though.

The design is a three stranded cord, which separates with each strand working to form part of a heart and then coming together to reform the cord. It is taken from the bible verse we used as the theme of our wedding: Ecclesiastes 4:12, "A cord of three strands is not easily torn apart." It represents the three relationships in our marriage that we need to keep it strong. My wife, Myself, and God.

G33KMOM

For mother's day my family got me something I was going to get a while ago and never did, custom plates for my new-to-me (2 years ago) car.  Every time I walk up to my car it's just weird, it looks so different, so odd not to have a random string of numbers, but something with meaning, and of course it makes me smirk and laugh just a little!

My silver Toyota Sienna minivan now boasts tags that proudly declare 

G33KMOM

(read Geek Mom)

Let me step back a bit though and share how all of that happened.  You see, a minivan was a huge move for me and one I fought tooth and nail to avoid.  I did not want to be just another mom in a minivan, I did not want to be wasteful driving around in an over-sized vehicle.  

Plans vs Reality: Date Night

Before my husband and I married 10 years ago, we did lots of research on to what a good marriage looks like.  We did premarital counseling, we read books, and we talked frankly and honestly with each other about what we expected and the things we were going to do to make out marriage work when both of our parents marriages didn't.  We spent a full year and a half engaged where with both worked out some individual issues we had (ok mostly me), dealt with spiritual struggles, and I finished college.  It wasn't easy, but it did give us a head start into a strong marriage that many of our peers just didn't get.  We weren't only goo-goo in love, but our heads were in the process as well and we knew full well that there was a whole life after the wedding and it wasn't always going to be a stroll in paradise.  Happily ever after takes planning, coordination, and effort!

Even with all out looking ahead and laying out of good strategies, even practicing those strategies when we didn't feel up to it, once we had kids... well it didn't all go out the window, but many of the things that we both crave and know are good for us, seem to be the most difficult things to have, especially continuing to date.  Even on the rare occasion that things come together to allow us to go out (which seems to get farther and farther apart and definitely not the twice a month we used to have before kids) things never seem to quite work.  On Monday, for our anniversary, was no exception.  

Random Tabs

I haven't really had a lot of time to write, which is starting to wear on me mentally, so get ready, as some point the floodgates will be opened.  I feel really sad that I let all of Hearing and Deaf Awareness Month pass and I didn't write a single thing about living with a Hearing Impaired spouse and comparing it to my own vision struggles, because it's seriously different and it's obvious when you are dealing with the situation, that no one realizes how very different it is, and part of that is because the deaf prefer to live in a subculture of society rather than integrate with society.  Also, we've been battling a wonderful spring cold/virus/cough/nasal nastiness, and quite frankly I'm almost as overdo for a date with my pillow as I am with my husband!

Oh and our game is in live beta over on facebook, and I definitely need to write something up about that!  But it is sucking my life away, because if I'm not playing it, we are talking about it.

However, I thought I would take a moment to share some of the stuff I've been reading and thinking about while it's relevant.  So after the jump get ready for some links and videos!