Where have I been?

This one is going to have LOTS of WORDS!! Just a warning for you non-readers out there.

The last I posted we were getting ready for Ava's appt in SF. That was an EVENTFUL trip to say the very least! Her appts were Thursday so we got there Wednesday. We stayed in a hotel near Union Square. We walked around Wed. night and went to a restaurant for dinner where we saw Dick Vitale eating dinner. I had no IDEA who he was, but Don did and so did the table of rude New Jerseyians who interrupted his dinner to ask for autographs and take pictures.
Ava had her MRI and MRA first thing the next morning. They put her under by putting the gas mask on her face and she only cried for 10-20 seconds. Then she went peacefully to sleep then Brooklyn begs the question to the nurses and anesthesiologist, "What is that and can we take some home? She never sleeps at home...at least for the car ride?" Everyone got a good laugh out of that.
The nurses came back to get us to tell us that they are getting ready to take her off of the gas, about 2 hours later, I get back by her side and the nurse starts to tell me to "stimulate her a bit- rub her, talk to her" to start waking her up. But warns that the process may take up to 20 -30 minutes and she was in no rush to take the IV's out of her arm and foot. I start seeing to her one of her favorite songs and rubbing her face. She struggles to open her eyes and then POP her eyes are open and she is trying to roll over, trying to rip the iv's out of her arm. The nurse comes in yelling "Stop stimulating her! I haven't taken the IV's out! They usually don't come out of anesthesia that quickly being so young. She is a feisty one" To which I have to agree.
After about the umteenth warning about not letting her crawl or try to hold her head up all day because she will be wobbly and almost new born again. We leave. Didn't the nurse just tell me that my baby was feisty? Does she really think that we can keep her still for too long?
After we grabbed breakfast and walked around downtown SF a bit and then off to Ava's Dr. appt. Ava's hemangioma has grown back slightly since being weened of the steroids. Not much and not enough to get back on the roids. We still have to go to Dr. appts in SF just not as frequently only a few times a year now. YES!!! They start to hit the wallet a bit hard - although it's a writeoff you still have to pay upfront!
Once we were through with that appt we went across the Bay to the Muir Beach and Muir Woods National forest. They are about 6 miles away from each other and only 16 miles away from the city but while we were there I almost forgot where we were. The beach was a ton of fun running in the waves on a cool SF afternoon. Muir Woods was awesome though! It is a Redwood forest, I can't believe that we haven't ever been there before. All of our trip to the bay area. It was breathtaking. The paths through the forest were boardwalk type things so completely cool for the stroller.
We checked out of our hotel the next morning. Lorelei and Ryan had bought their nursery furniture from Ikea in Sacramento, everything but the crib and the only Ikea that had the crib in stock was a store just outside SF they asked if we could pick it up for them. Not a problem I say...hee hee....we had to drive to our hotel 2 hrs to unload the luggage from the car to be able to get the crib in. We get to our FAVORITE hotel in Sacramento. We have stayed there before on our trips home, to break up the drive. We were making this weekend our final horrah to summer weekend as school for both Brooklyn and me was to start the following Monday.
This is what I have been dying to blog about and haven't due to the sensitive and perhaps litigious nature of it all, however if I bury several paragraphs down maybe you won't catch it.
To make the long story short and less nauseating as we were getting ready to leave the hotel, which by the way is a solid 3 star nationwide chain with an outstanding reputation Don was on the phone with our Dr. from SF who was giving him the results from Ava's MRI/MRA which came back great, no vascular anomalies within the head. I see Brooklyn carrying something to the garbage can - I begin to scream, a series of 3 phrases over and over and over as she stands in complete shock not knowing what's going on, I was saying "Drop it! Drop it! DOOOON!!!! Wash your hands!! Drop it!!" She had taken a used condom away from the baby who had been chewing on it - yes that's right - I just said my baby was chewing on someone else's used condom! EWW She had found it somewhere underneath the false bed thing at the hotel...again a solid 3 star joint. We have stayed in hotels with not so prominent names and that wouldn't have surprised me one bit. I can say that they were "johnny on the spot" comped our room, got us an insurance claim number and directions to the closest hospital right away. Ava was tested for and treated for Gonnereah and Chlamydia, the treatments were just to air on the side of caution. Brooklyn was told just to follow up with our pediatrician once we got home. Our at home pediatrician says we need to do STD test every 6 months for the next year. That was a chore it took 4 of us to hold Ava down for the blood draw and Brooklyn had to sit with Don and hold his hand, she was so scared for it. Of course I am not making light of it, but I am not stressed out either, their first round of tests came back all clear only 12 months left! Yeah!
Lorelei had her baby shower that Sunday when we got home. Brooklyn started the 5th grade that Monday. Her schedule keeps me running! I already can't wait for her to turn 16 so she can drive herself! She plays soccer, as usual. Then she wanted to be in the band, so she borrowed Holly's old clarinet and taught herself how to play it before her first band practice, she is so talented! She joined the yearbook committee at the school and has to be dropped of every Wednesday AM and she tried out for 101 Dalmatians play at the Brewery Arts Center Children's Theatre and got the role of Nanny. Not bad for her first time trying out getting a speaking role! She is so excited! And I am so busy! I also went back to school and I am taking 9 credit hours. Ava needs to learn to be without me and the College's childcare is sadly, the best here, and it's easier to get a spot if you are a student. Plus I would like to finish college before Brooklyn!
We drove to Hurricane for Labor Day weekend. It's Peach Days in Hurricane! I have missed the last two because the first was during an insemination cycle and I had to stay close to home to run to the Docs office and the last was because I was WAAAY to pregnant! I missed it so much! Holly brought up her kids plus a surprise, she brought Alexa up with her also! We were so excited to see her. Brooklyn really misses her cousins and it was so awesome that all but Riley were there. They went on some creepy scary rides at the home made fair. I will post pictures later. The parade is always a hit the kids all come home with WalMart bags of candy. I love small town parades. On the way to Hurricane we decided to drive different routes this time instead of the Tonopah to Vegas to Hurricane. We drove through central NV, Fallon, Eureka to Ely that is as far as we got the first day. Ava doesn't travel well - that's why we stay in Sac. The ride was very pretty. More boring though then the normal way. We got to see antelope! That was awesome! I had never seen them in real life - come to think of it none of us did. Then we drove through Pioche and saw where my grandma was raised. Lots of cute stuff. I wish we would have not had a screaming kid and could have checked more stuff out. The ride home was also interesting because we drove through St. George to Enterprise and stopped of at the Mountain Meadow Massacre Monument. Every time we are down in that area I tell Don about it and he has always wanted to go. It is so humbling and sacred, it makes me a bit sad that we will never know the whole truth about what went down there that day. The Monument itself has changed a bunch since I last remember seeing it - so it was nice. The ride home was so stinking uneventful! We drove at night through Rachel, NV we looked for aliens - found none. We saw a heard of cows though and managed not to hit them. That part of the ride was about the time Brooklyn came to and saw that we were passing a herd of cows (oh yeah -it's open range) and a bull was shaking his head probably swatting flies or something - but Brooklyn thought he was "getting ready to charge the car!" Hahaha so funny. We ended up staying in Tonopah at the Ramada - we would have expected a condom from this hotel - it was disgusting!!! beyond gross! There was hair that didn't belong to me all over the bathroom. Yucka Yucka.
Since Labor Day we have been hanging here waiting for Lorelei to have her baby. I didn't want to be anywhere else when she went into labor. About 10 days ago we got a puppy. His name is Snoopy. We rescued him from Dog Town Canine Rescue. He is a sweet boy. He is a Lab/Dachshund mix. His is our Weiner-Dor. He is a bit skeptical of our family still it is taking him a bit to warm up to us. He is an awesome dog though - outside he is so happy and playful so long as one of us it out there with him. School for me is going well at the moment I have a lot of studying to do for tests the next two weeks.
So a few weeks ago I had asked Lorelei what the one thing she wants to have after she gives birth, because she has been SOOO good and not had any caffeine through her pregnancy. It took her a while and she said "Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper" so I bought a 12 pack and kept it in the fridge. Friday when I got home from school the house phone rang and it was Lorelei - calling from the hospital. She said, "Hey, do you have any of that DP on ice?" Holy crap she was in labor! Her water broke! I had to get some Aquafina water, since that is what Ryan prefers and some flowers and cookies and stuff and then we went to the hospital and waited and waited. It actually wasn't that long. We were there from about 2 to 9. She had the baby at 7:45pm? He is 7lb 3oz and 19 inches long. The name game was over too - we were able to find out his name. He is Jase Steven Lamb. Jase from a movie they saw and Steven from Lorelei's Dad. She looked unblemished from labor, it's sick actually! They are such a cute family and I am so blessed to have them in my life.
So now this week Brooklyn is running for her class president. As if she isn't doing enough! The teacher said we could pass out treats or make posters and stuff like that. So we made a 5 pack of the mini poster board - like 16x20 or so and a normal sized poster board of Vote for Brooklyn signs. We brain stormed candy slogans and came up with 3 that she really liked so we printed slogans on labels and got it all ready to pass out Mon, Wed & Fri. She passed raisins out Monday that said,"Raisin the Roof! Raisin the Standard! Vote for Brooklyn" Wednesday will be "Don't be nuts! Vote for Brooklyn" on bags of Corn Nuts. Friday we bought a 3 pack box of candy bars "It's Crunch time! Vote for Brooklyn" on a crunch obviously. "Don't let the votes slip! Vote for Brooklyn" on Butterfingers and "Hit the vote out of the park! Vote for Brooklyn" on a Babe Ruth. Votes will be held on Friday. I can't wait to see how she does. She said that the teacher wouldn't hang all of her signs until other people brought some in too, I guess she was the only one ready on Monday morning. And I asked her "Don't you think that this gives you an unfair advantage? Bringing candy and stickers and stuff?" she said,"NOPE! It's not my fault other people aren't prepared or organized" Hahaha she is my kid!
Anyway Kudos to you if you read all of this!!! It has taken me all of 2 days to write this so if I missed something- sorry. I will post a slew of pictures to go along with the post in the next 2 days or something. I must go study for my biology exam that I have tomorrow.