Singing to the Moon

Wings of Slumber just might be your next favorite CD! I added it to my library hold list two weeks ago while creating a wish list for my preschool EE job. I ended up with two wish lists; 1 for my job and 1 for my life. Wings of Slumber is on my personal wish list, but I am going to spread the word to my place of employment in any way I can.

My daughter has rarely chosen another CD for nap and bed times. One afternoon we listened to a few of her favorite songs just for fun. She loves the part about the coyote singing to the moon (from "Singing to the Moon").  I read the booklet and fell in love with the Banana Slug String Band and this album. It makes me yearn for my childhood days of being completely absorbed by nature. It has also inspired me to keep teaching the preschoolers and my daughter so that they might one day experience the same nostalgic feelings. I so wish I could unlock some secret talent for song writing!

Before you buy this CD, although I really don't think it is necessary, check out snippets of the songs:
Song previews.
You could then choose to buy the MP3s right there!

To read more about Banana Slug String Band and the wonderful things they have going on, visit their website.
http://www.bananaslugstringband.com/    I can't wait to listen to their other albums!

Set your mind to wonder...and soon you'll be singing to the moon!

Odd Jobs

A number of years ago my husband and I were talking about life, jobs, and writing interesting stories. It led us to make a list of the jobs I have had since I entered the work force at age 14. My plan is to slowly write about my experiences and how they intertwined in my life to make me who I am today. What is still with me from all of these jobs?

Here is the list. Any feedback on the one or two (or few) that you find most interesting would be great! Are there any you want to know more about?

In no particular order:
1)Agra Quest (greenhouse worker- seed planting, repotting, germination strategies)
2)Veterinarian Clinic in my home town (clean, observe animals, run autoclave, assisted in one emergency surgery, XRay assistant)
3)Dog Groomer (private show dogs- Cocker Spaniels)
4)Dog washer (public, local dog grooming facility; included emptying anal glands)
5)Red Barn Farm Market (cashier and stocker; sold Christmas trees; assisted in Halloween festitivities such as face painting, taking tickets for the maze and haunted house)
6)Coffee maker (local coffee shop at the train station)
7) Frito Lay (shelf stocker at specific stores near hometown)
8) babysitting in hometown (went on one weekend adventure with a family to the northwoods)
9) Student Farm in UCD (farm worker; drove a tractor)
10) UCD Arboretum nursery (cleaned pots, propagated plants (research style), repotted seedlings)
11) Elderly woman's Assistant (Carol had me clean, make lunch, do her hair, drive her places)
12) Babysitter for two girls in Davis (this was a tough job!)
13) Courtesy Clerk (Lucky's grocery store)
14) Assistant Soccer Coach (for under 11 girls team)
15) Substitute Teacher in Davis and Kenosha
16) Classroom Teacher (1/2 year 8th grade science, full year 7th grade math)
17) Yard Duty (for Davis elementary school)
18) Yolo Basin Foundation (environmental educator as intern and volunteer; taught school groups about wetlands)
19)Picking Seeds?
20) USDA Forest Service (hectar plot mapping in Kings Canyon National Forest at Teakettle research area)
21) Eagle in hometown (was hired but never worked even an hour)
22) Davis Bed and Breakfast (cleaned rooms, started recycling program)
23) Wood Duck Project (checked wood duck nest boxes)
24) traced mountain lion paw prints
25) Stay-at-home mom
26) Naturalist at Aldo Leopold Nature Center
27) House Painter (helped at one job in Davis, did in-laws house for money)

Echo, echo, echo

We had the 22 week fetal echocardiogram on Thursday and everything came back fine. Yahoo! Yippee! But, wait, good news really isn't good news. Our overall risk may just have decreased some since no markers were found at the 20 week ultrasound and the baby's heart appears completely fine. I almost cried with joy until the doctor continued.  We (pediatric cardiologists) can miss minor defects in the heart folds/flaps and there is always a chance that the heart will not develop normally once the baby is born. So wipe those smug looks off your faces!Still, there are always these risks with any pregnancy and baby. And even if the baby is born completely healthy, who's to say that somewhere down the road a major (or minor) health issue won't pop up?  Take me for example. I am a healthy person relatively speaking. But the hole in my heart does not fit nicely into the healthy and normal category. Can I live a normal life? Probably, as I have been doing. (This question will really be answered after D-day when we meet with a cardiologist.) And I know at least two other families that had totally fine and no risk pregnancies only to have to deal with epilepsy or brain tumors 9 months to a year later.  When I think about that it puts this whole 9 month journey into perspective. You never know what life will throw you or when the tables could turn. Sounds scary with all of these hormones cruising around! But it is also encouraging to know that we will be able to handle anything that comes our way.

Baby Blues and Pinks

Believe it or not I was very excited after I peed on a stick! On December 11, 2011, I peed on a pregnancy stick and it was positive. We were going to have a baby!  It was really hard not to tell people right away. So hard in fact that I did tell my two best friends a couple of weeks later. Here ends the rosy pink part of the story. It all went spectacularly to pieces after that. This may be an exaggeration, we're looking into it.Over Christmas break I woke up with something strange happening in my right eye. Turns out that the blind spot is affectionately know by ophthalmologists as cotton wool spots in people generally 20 years my senior. Most likely a clot from somewhere else in my body traveled to my eye and clogged up the works in a fairly large portion of my retina tissue.  Pregnancy can be a cause of cotton wool spots, though usually concurrently with gestational diabetes and high blood pressure. I did not (and do not) suffer from either of those symptoms.  I was tested for a whole range of things, which all turned out fine. So we were confident that a pregnancy fluke caused the blind spot. But would they leave well enough alone? Of course not. This time I had to go in for an echocardiogram and a carotid doppler, AKA ultrasounds of my heart and neck arteries.  When the echo was inconclusive (ugh) I went back for another echo but this time with the added bonus of some shaken saline solution, an IV, and lots of stress.  Their suspicions were confirmed- I have a tiny hole in the septum of my heart that is obvious when I "bear down" and not so present when I breathe normally. Perinatalogist here we come! The perinatalogist may say I am fine and just to push when the time comes and stop being a baby. (really, it isn't me, mam.) They may say, "stop! don't push. Let's cut you open and yank the baby out through your tummy instead." Or they may say, "keep coming to see us and we'll see." Which would you choose?
Thrown in the mix of all of this roller coaster ride was the fact that I turned 35 years old 1.5 months after peeing on the stick. Suddenly I got pushed into the high(er) risk category and subjected to more tests. The first trimester screening left us with the same risk as a 45 year old woman or in other words, 1 in 21 chance of having a baby with down syndrome. The NF was 3.2 mm; anything under 3.0 is considered normal. All my proteins came back fine, though.  So more to worry about.
The 20 week ultrasound happened after it felt like an eternity. and (drum roll), they found no markers for down syndrome. Are you excited? Well, don't be.  It doesn't change our risk and the baby still has a 50% chance of popping out with a disability. I am fighting off feeling completely happy that the baby appears normal. I don't want to come crashing down off a high on D-day or in two weeks at the fetal echo. What is a fetal echo you ask? Due to the first trimester screening we also have to have an ultrasound done of the baby's heart. 20 weeks is too early so back we go. Babies with down syndrome tend to have heart issues, too, which is why they check for that as well.
There is just too much power, technology and knowledge these days. If I had known better or trusted my instinct that it would be better to not know until D-day, we would have passed on the screening. If we had just gone in today for the 20 week ultrasound we'd be sitting pretty. Because the thing is this, we still don't know jack. We won't do an amniocentesis so we won't know jack until D-day. Even if we did know for sure, we couldn't really prepare for it. We can't really prepare for anything anyway.
Denial is our best medicine right now, as long as we don't forget that even good news isn't really good news. And Jack is starting to sound like a decent name for a boy.

Rosette Rolls

My grandma inadvertently sort of offended me the other day when I asked if we could bring anything for Easter and she said, "Steve could make some rolls." As if I don't know how to make anything!  The truth of the matter is that cooking and baking are somewhat annoying and make me green around the gills- thanks to the bun in the oven. Most likely Grandma was just trying to make things easy for me. We have gotten a lot of mileage out of the scenario, though.
So today I whipped up the dough that has eggs, butter, and milk plus a little sugar. The most fun was making snakes, tying a knot and tucking the ends in to make a nice rosette. They were so pretty! The smell they made while cooking was so horrible! Steve hardly understood since to him they smelled delicious. It really clouded my appetite and made all food seem like an impossibility. What a shame.
When the rolls were neatly lined up on the wire rack, Steve said, "Grandma is really going to be impressed with the rolls I made."  We all split one to taste-test and found it moist, tender and oh so good. Grandma will be proud!