Another non-stop day!

I guess I could have broken this post down into a few different topics - but I try to limit my blogging time to around 30 minutes because I have tons of studying to do in the evenings. So a combined post is often the best use of my time.

This morning I got a call from a family that was interested in viewing the house. They were scheduled to come on another day and we ended up rescheduling once already. They asked if they could come by right now, and I said sure. It's kindof funny to think about how this progresses. The first family that came by the day after we had the house on the market - I thoroughly mopped the floor, I used the orange-oil wipes on the kitchen cabinets to make them shine, my fridge was organized, my dishwasher was empty, basically the house was perfect. After all, everything I've read tells me that I'm supposed to alphabetize my spices so that when someone opens up my kitchen cabinets they will be impressed. Not so much today. I swept the floor, windexed both bathrooms and hid the dirty dishes from the sink into the dishwasher. I did run the vaccum and take a shower, but that was about it. No sooner had they left, I went to get Joshua a cup of water and when I opened up the cup cabinet, I was attacked by a Dora the Explorer cup. Whew...it's a good thing they didn't look in that one.

Someone asked me today if I was saddened since the family that was ready to put down a full-price offer last week backed out at the last minute (who can blame them, buying a house in today's market is really scary, and if we weren't about to buy our forever house, I wouldn't be very interested in buying a house for a few year tour, either). Nope, not at all. Don't get me wrong, part of me would like to check it off the to-do list, but I know our house will sell when it's time. We definately have had plenty of interest.

Today I had lunch for the last time with almost all the members of the KINDNESS team. KINDNESS will be creating a blog in the near future, so I'll be sure to link it here. My role in the KINDNESS project was a peer counselor. Two to four days a month I would be on-call at the hospital enrolling mothers in to the project. An enrollment consisted providing education for moms on the day of (or day after) delivery. Moms would consent to have us follow them, and we would check in with them on day 3, day 10, and then on monthly or bi-monthly type intervals. Mostly we lent an ear for frustrations. I can still remember my first mom that I enrolled at the hospital, she was doing great. On day 3 when I called her, she was sobbing so hard, she couldn't even speak. This being mom stuff is hard work, add to it being up all night and physical/hormonal changes that occur after delivery and it makes for a huge emotional roller-coaster. So the number one goal of KINDNESS is support. Along with the support comes the education. Regardless of breast or bottle feeding, the goal is to provide mom with the courage to make good informed decisions. Fortunately, each member of KINDNESS is put through a pretty thorough training in lactation to encourage moms to do what their bodies do naturally.

Some impressive numbers: The national average for breastfeeding initiation at birth is about 66%, Kodiak's average since July of 2006 is 96%.




This is a beautiful pin that Heather (the coordinator of the program) gave me. It is about the size of a half-dollar, and the coloring is just beautiful. It's sitting on my yellow cutting board in my kitchen.

Here are the ladies from lunch today. We were missing a few members of the team (it's so hard to get us all together at the same time!).

After lunch, I drove out to the base to get groceries, since I didn't really get a chance to shop yesterday. The snowflakes were beautiful. I stood in the parking lot just watching them come down. People probably thought I was a fool, but it was an amazing site. The huge snowflakes looked like whisps of cotton.

I had mentioned that the kids really enjoy watching The Muppet Show (or in Daniel's language, The Muffin Show). Well, yesterday we watched an episode that had Elton John singing Crocodile Rock and he was dressed quite flamboyantly. So today, Megan came out of her room for a snack and she said, "mom, do I look like that lady from The Muppet Show that sang at the piano tomorrow?" (tomorrow means yesterday for Megan). I nearly died laughing!

Living on an island means that what you want at the grocery store might not always be available when you want it. I needed a few things that were not at the commissary, so I took Daniel with me to Safeway again today. He insisted on holding the celery up with him. As we passed the cookie lady, she offered him a cookie, and he said, "no fanks, I holding the celery for lunch". And wouldn't you know, he held the celery the whole trip, and then the whole way home in the car.

By the way, I love his green jacked. It reminds me so much of a jacket my dad used to wear when I was growing up, only Dad's had a 33 on it. I should offer some sort of prize if you can guess why the 33 was significant. :)

When I got back from Safeway, Joshua told me to go look on my bed. This is the same Joshua that woke up with a 104.1 fever this morning. The steady trail of Tylenol and Motrin has been keeping him comfortable. He drew me this wonderful picture:

But he said I couldn't keep it because on the backside he drew a picture of Sleeping Beauty for Megan. Complete with the fairies (Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather) and the witch and the prince and his horse.

And then Megan drew me a picture, too. To the normal eye, it just looks like a bunch of lines. But to the over-paranoid mother who also happens to be a nurse with a big interest in child development, a picture like this brings joy to me. Horizontal lines are a fabulous pre-reading skill. Sadly, I must be studying too much lately, if I am reading that much into my children's artwork.