and this, my friends, is lubbock!

Every year, and I do mean every year, we have a random day in late March or early April where the temperature drops like 50 degrees and it snows. Well, today is that day. We went from this yesterday...

To this today...

10 months

Last Friday, Jonas turned 10 months old! He is changing really fast these days. It is pretty amazing to watch the skills he has every day - like just last night, we were in the kitchen cooking dinner when Paul turned around to put something in the fridge to see Jonas literally climbing out of his highchair. He had one leg completely over the side, and was pretty much just hanging on with his hands. Also, his 10 month birthday just happened to be our first day at home together since I left my job, and he almost got hurt very badly when he knocked a full-length mirror over and it broke all around him. I left the room thinking he was following me when I heard the crash. I bet you can imagine the rapid thought going through my head as I dropped whatever I was holding as I ran to him. He escaped with a tiny little cut on his arm. Thank you, Lord, that he was not directly under the mirror when it fell (btw...we did buy a new mirror that we attached to the wall so this won't happen again). Here is a list of the little mister's latest accomplishments...

- stands on his own. usually not for very long, but lets go all the time
- loves to eat his "snacks" which are cherrios, star puffs,wagon wheels...
- drinking juice in his sippy cup - well, kinda. it is VERY diluted juice and he is not sure about it yet, but we are trying
- loves to climb anything and everything. this makes me really tired just thinking about the next several years
- says "mamama" and "dadadada" all the time, and is talking to us when he says it
- his dexterity is amazing. he will pick up the smallest thing with his pointer finger and thumb
- is starting to get the hang of playing with trucks
- really likes balls of any kind
- has a pretty tremendous throw. he can launch a ball across the room. we had to put away the golf balls that he was playing with.
- he has started to not want to be left by us. he will cling much tighter if he does not know someone and fusses a little when we leave.
- he has finally cut another tooth. it is the top, left eye tooth. we think his other eye tooth and his front 2 teeth are not far behind.
- he weighed 16 lbs, 13 oz about a week ago. he is 28 inches long. (that is 5% for weight and 50% for height)

Here are some 10 month pictures. But just a warning...he is in a phase right now where he won't smile for the camera or let us get a good picture.

going on a trip

Jonas and I (sarah) are going on a road trip together...I am a little bit nervous. We are going to meet my mom and sisters in San Marcos this week. Pray for us!

And, Jonas has another tooth! But, the weird thing is that it is his top side tooth.

I am sure I'll have some stories and pictures to share when we get back later this week.

Wish me luck!

who needs The Office?

In honor of NOT being in the the office today, I thought I would post a picture of our own little Dwight Shrute...

And, look how much these two look alike...

And, slowly but surely we've reached 100 posts. Lots has happened since that time 2 years ago. I know, I know, that is not a good post/year average. But hey, you will be hearing lots more since I am unemployed! At least I have a little helper to keep me company.

here come better days

So, I am at home. It is 3:30 in the afternoon. It is pretty rare that I am at home at 3:30 in the afternoon. Tomorrow is my last day at work (well, at work as I know it). Today was my "Farewell Reception". I am always a little nervous before stuff like that. Nervous that no one will come. Nervous that I won't know what to say or how to act. Nervous because it is about me and for me. I felt that way with wedding showers and baby showers. Don't get me wrong, I really like it once I am there but gearing up to get there is hard for me. People stopped by today, and I got this really pretty Texas Tech serving dish and a picture frame - also Texas Tech. Jonas came to my party too. I think everyone was more excited about seeing him than bidding me farewell. So, I left after the reception was over. And came home. I didn't know where else to go, and frankly, I was hot and wanted to change my clothes. On the way home, I realized that I am not sure what I feel about this transition. On one hand, I am so so excited. On the other, I am sad. And, if I had a third hand, I am scared. Excited that I will get to experience what it is like to stay at home with my child. Excited that I won't feel guilty for leaving him in the care of others all day. Excited that life will be more calm and that I won't feel frustrated with myself for not doing any of my jobs with complete excellence. I am sad for the relationships I will be leaving. In my time at my office, I have had a unique position. I have been a boss, but I think I've been a friend as well. My staff have dealt with divorce, death, unfaithfulness, alcoholism...you name it. I like that I have been able to be a part of their lives and have them as a part of mine. And, I am scared that I will not be able to "get back in the game". That my experience in managing will be too old, so I will have to start out at entry level positions when I return to work. That my mind will loose some of it's business sharpness. That I will regret by decision to leave. I like being a manager, and I think I am a fairly good one. I like being influential and have had the unique opportunity to know some really influential people. I like fighting for what I believe is right on behalf of other people. So, excitement, sadness and fear all collide inside me.

I made the decision to leave my job for several reasons. Some were because of the job situation itself - which is always hard. I didn't see things changing any time soon (or as fast as I needed them to change), and I had given a lot of warning that things needed to change. The other is so obviously because I will never raise Jonas again.

On my way home this afternoon, the cd just happened to be on this song. And, I could really relate to these lyrics. Here's to better days...

here come better days

here come better days,better days, and a better place I know.

Green grass and I'm laying in the sunlight of you,

the wind is moving through the trees blustering you,

and the better days you bring,the better places found,

feasting at your table I'm overwhelmed,

and I lift my glass drink to those who never gave up,

clouds pass fading into memories gone,

and all I know for life is life and love and peace,what else could there be?

nine months

Jonas is now 9 months old! I can't believe that he has been a part of our family for the same amount of time that we waited for him to arrive. Our boy is getting so big (not physically...he is still really small in that area). Jonas got to be with his grandma and grandpa when he turned 9 months old which was really fun. In the past month, he has gotten really good at cruising. He is such a fast little crawler as well. It is really funny if both Paul and I walk out of the room to look back and see Jonas coming to find us. He still only has the 2 bottom teeth, but I think he may get 2 top teeth really soon. Jonas says "mamamama" and "dadadada" all the time. We are not sure if he associates those words with us or not. My mom said that he would use the appropriate word when Paul or I left the room at their house. Jonas has also started letting go while standing. It is always pretty brief, but we can tell he is getting more and more comfortable doing that. We really think he will be walking in the next 2 months - so crazy! Jonas has also really started to play by himself. It is really cute to see him try to push his trucks or roll the ball around. He also loves to sit and play with his toys that make noise. He weighs 16 lbs, 6 oz and is 27 inches long...not much change from last month. He is just a small little boy.

It is so fun to watch Jonas interact with people (including Paul and myself). He is really social. In fact, he has been known to only nap for 15 minutes the ENTIRE day at school - there is just way too much to do.

He is such a joy and delight. I know I say that every month, but it is really true. Jonas has such a sweet little personality. He is a charmer and definitely has us hooked! We could not be more thankful and grateful and just overwhelmed by the blessing that he is.

Enjoy these pictures from his 9 month birthday...

trying to get a few "posed" pictures

exploring grandma and grandpa's backyard

my big blues

cousin Elliana helping baby Jonas with his paci

Jonas had cheerios for the 1st time

and he tried a sippy cup...he liked the cheerios much better

huh?

So, I realize that we have been pretty absent in the blog world. I know this because I've gotten lots of questions about my facebook statuses (or would that be stati?) Lots to tell you, so go get a drink, run to the bathroom, grad a snack... I will break this up into "Parts" - which are kinda like chapters, but this isn't a book and chapters seem to indicate that you may never navigate away from this page. Here goes.

PART 1:
Jonas' final diagnosis in the hospital was bronchiolitis...viral infection in the bronchials. Symptoms were classic of this virus. After we resumed our normal routine last Monday, I was talking to a co-worker who asked how Jonas was doing. At the end of the conversation, she asked me if we had ever had him tested for Cystic Fibrosis. Well, no, we haven't because we don't know ANYONE in either one of our families who have CF. Her husband has CF, and she was just wondering because Jonas had RSV in early December and then this bout with a respiratory issue. I think she meant well, but it put me into freak-out mode. I immediately googled CF and called Paul. We read and re-read the symptoms and saw how Jonas matched some of them...respiratory problems, low weight gain were the main ones. Jonas was to have a follow-up appointment with the Dr. that Wednesday (this is last Wed.). After the dr had listened to his chest and checked him over, she said he sounded great. I asked her about cystic fibrosis at the end of the appointment. She didn't seem too worried at first since Jonas had been sick at all the "right" times - meaning during the respiratory illness season. But, she said he did match the profile and ordered a test. To test for CF, they collect sweat and analyze the salt content. Right after the dr, Paul met us at the hospital where we had the sweat test done. There is a new pediatric pulmonologist in town (she is the only one in Lubbock) who came about a month ago and lowered the standards of the test. Therefore, what used to be normal was now borderline, etc. The new borderline started at 30, and Jonas was at 37. Since he was in the grey area, he had to have another one done. So, I took Jonas last Friday for the second sweat test. This time it came back at 42. I started getting worried. Paul was a little more calm. We finally were able to talk to the dr on Friday night (I need to tell you that this dr is filling in for our regular dr who is on maternity leave). She absolutely scared me. You see, while we were getting the first test done, the lab technician told us that in the last month 85% of the kids tested came back borderline or higher...that is a large number considering that only about 30,000 people in the entire US have CF. So, we were a little suspicious, but the dr pretty much refuted that. The dr told us that we either needed to have one more sweat test conducted or we needed to have a DNA test done. Over the weekend, Paul and I began leaning toward just getting the DNA test so that we would know for sure. We were really scared. On Sunday (after I had vowed not to look at the Internet any more), I found an article that discussed the types of sweat test that are used to detect CF. Wait a minute - types of test? I started putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Our lab report said that Jonas had been given the sweat conductivity test which has a different set of normal values. The more we researched, we realized that what it looked like was that the test given in the lab was being interpreted by the wrong set of of values - the sweat conductivity test was being interpreted by the sweat chloride values. So, Paul went to the hospital yesterday morning to find out some answers. He finally got in touch with the medical director of pathology for the hospital who was VERY concerned to say the least. He really thought that the lab report listed the right values but that maybe the test listed was wrong. The more he looked into it, he found that Jonas had in fact been given the sweat conductivity test NOT the sweat chloride test, and the numbers of 37 and 42 were sweat conductivity results. HUGE MISTAKE!!! So, Jonas is fine...we are so thankful! The medical director was so apologetic and was no doubt contacting the hospitals lawyers. There are many children who this would have affected, and we are the first to have caught the mistake. We think the pediatric pulmonologist lowered the standard based on the sweat chloride test not knowing that the lab couldn't even conduct that kind of test. What a crazy experience! Praise the Lord with us. We were pretty desperate and leaning toward devastation that Jonas may have this disease.

Part 2:
I have a new job! I have decided to leave my job as the Assistant Director of Admissions at Texas Tech to stay home with Jonas. There is a whole lot surrounding this decision. Most of the decision is because I want to be with Jonas, but there is also a certain amount of frustration that has gone unresolved with my job. I am really excited and really nervous. My last day is March 6. I will continue to work for my office as a consultant, so I will have some business contact. We are super excited to see what life looks like.

Well, you made it. Thanks for hanging in there. We are off to Houston this Thursday for some much needed rest and restoration. I am looking forward to having a Valentine's date with Paul! We'll post pictures soon - I promise!