Missing my family

I was working along yesterday in the Redding office designing a storm drain system when I received an email from Emerson. I had to fight back the tears. I miss my little man.

Promotion

I am being promoted from an EP01 to an EP02. Don't ask me what that means, because I really couldn't answer you, but I am going up a position, so I'm very happy. I think I even get a little pay increase with it, but we shall see. Anyway, I just thought I'd share the news with anyone who actually reads all of my random thoughts on this blog.

One Ginormous Pumpkin!

We grew lots of veggies this year in our new raised garden Brent built for us. We also tried growing pumpkins for the first time along our fence. We only planted one seed and it took off! However, we did only get one pumpkin that survived, but oh did it survive. It is freaking huge! Emerson can't wait to cut it up for Halloween.

Brent and Emerson showing off the pumpkin

Emerson had to get a new winter jacket and he thought he was quite cute and funny in it

How could anyone possibly refuse that face?!

Weekend Update

We had a full, but fun weekend. The College of Idaho had a soccer player alumni weekend and my friend LauraLee ventured to town with her kids in tow. Unfortunately, Mandi couldn't come also, but we'll make a trip over to see her hopefully in the Spring. I don't know who picked the expensive restaurant Friday night, but they should re-think that next time. Emerson ate as much calamari he could get his hands on. It is always good to have a happy kid with you. Anyway, we met lots of ladies from previous C of I teams and the current coach of the women's team. It was a lot of fun, but we were sure pooped when we got home. All three of us crashed immediately.

On Saturday we had errands to run in the morning, I had a soccer game to coach, we had to fit Emerson's nap in there somewhere, a lovely, but cold, wedding in the afternoon, and then over to my parents' for turkey dinner. Saturday was quite full. Again, we were exhausted.

Emerson has been wrestling with a cold all weekend so Sunday we hung out at home so Emerson could get some rest from our already very hectic weekend until we went to Dick and Joyce's house for a birthday dinner for Bobby. Joyce made very delicious baked pork chops in a very yummy gravy with mashed potatoes, green beans, bread, and apple salad. Emerson hadn't eaten much the past few days because he didn't feel well, but he sure did like the oreo cake!

Overall it was a great weekend.

HAPPY BDAY!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEAUTIFUL COUSIN TRICIA!!!

Bathroom Conundrum

Ok, so they replaced the light switches in the bathrooms at work to those motion sensor thingies to save energy. I want to be just as environmentally conscious as the next person, but I have found one fatal flaw in the new system. I don’t have to worry about people turning the light out on me anymore and therefore taking care of business in the dark (been there, done that). I do, however, need to take an object into the bathroom with me to chuck out of the stall when the sensor no longer finds life in the bathroom, hence the light turns off on me. For here is the problem; the motion sensor is in the same location as the light switch was so once I am in the stall doing my business the powers that be don’t sense any movement and therefore the lights turn off. This brings me back to the object chucking. When I travel to and from the bathroom at work, please do not be alarmed that I am carrying inanimate objects not suitable for bathroom duty. I’m only using it to turn the lights back on by tossing it out of my stall.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICK!!!

A big happy birthday to my cousin Nick! I hope your birthday is fabulous!!!

Birthday Party!

Emerson had a most fabulous birthday full of lots of presents, some he opened prematurely when I wasn't looking. Here is a picture of the train cake I made. I couldn't even try to draw Thomas, so I just drew any old train. Oh well. A train is a train right? Anyway, I don't have any other pictures yet from his bday, but when I do I'll post those too. He had a great time and I think all the other kids did also.

Boise Zoo

We go to the zoo quite often because Emerson loves animals. The penguins are his favorite, but I'm sure you can tell from the look on his face!

that facial expression says it all!

Tovah and Eric Visit

Our friend from High School, Tovah, came down to Boise with her husband Eric and we had a great time. We journeyed to the Soul Food Festival in Julia Davis Park and had lots of good eats.

Tovah

Emerson loves walking on the greenbelt

wait for me daddy!

those were some very good ribs

we all got quite messy eating all the great soul food

Oregon Coast and Portland

I'm sorry I haven't been updating the blog very regularly. I've been posting pictures to my Facebook account more often because I can post more pictures and more family members have access.

In July we ventured to Portland for Grandpa Jerry's memorial and decided to make a stop at the Oregon Coast first and then work our way back to Portland. We realized we had never gone anywhere with just the three of us. We always take trips with other family members so we had a lot of fun just spending time together.

Brent and Emerson in front of Niagra Falls

Brent and Emerson in front of the Spruce Goose in Wilsonville, OR

Emerson is practicing his chopper skills

Emerson loved exploring all the tidepools and seeing all the mollusks... we all did

a boy and his daddy... awww...

my two sisters and cousin (RtoL: Alex, Charlotte, Tricia, me)

there sure were a lot of Dietz's at the memorial

and a lot of Meacham's too

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Updates

Well, physical therapy is harder than I thought, but it is going well. The therapist says I'm doing much better than she would have expected and so that makes me happy. My scare is healing quite nicely as well so that's good.

Brent and I are just busy, busy, busy working and chasing Emerson around. We went to the parade on the 4th and had a BBQ at a friend's house from work. It was great fun.

Emerson was just waiting for the parade to start...

Brent's mom marching and playing in the parade

Emerson and his aunti Alex at Blimpies after the parade

Emerson really loved Grace's bunny

Ok, so here it comes...

Well, it has most certainly been a long time since I've posted. A lot has been going on so I'm going to try and update a little at a time. Here goes...

Emerson's hair grows quite quickly and so I have to cut it more often than he'd really like. Here are some before and after pictures of one of his most recent cuts. As you can see, the kid accumulates a lot of hair.

We've also been working in our yard a lot building a garden and a fence to separate the garden. We will also be adding a greenhouse and cobble path around everything. It has been quite the project so far, but fun. Emerson absolutely loves helping in the process, as you can see below.

Our neighbor has two little tiny dogs and Emerson likes to peak at them through the fence.

This is just a funny picture of Emerson and his tongue. He likes showing off!

In bigger news, I have had quite a change the past few months. As some of you know, I went to see an orthopedic surgeon about three months ago because my foot has been in so much pain. After a soccer game it just throbs and is almost unbearable. I've had to wear a brace on my right foot since High School whenever I play in order to stop my ankle from constantly rolling. Nobody has been able to tell me what was wrong with my foot, so Brent suggested I see an orthopedic surgeon. Well, he made us an appointment and after only one x-ray, he discovered a birth defect in the top of my foot. Can you believe that?! I had a birth defect the whole time and nobody noticed when I had x-rays before. What happened was tht some time during development (I must not have been a very good swimmer) two of my bones fused together where they shouldn't have and created a bone longer than it was meant to be. The end result was that I had to have surgery so I did that on the 6th of May. The surgeons went in and cut out about and inch and a half of bone. At first I had to wear a horrible dressing called a Jones dressing. It was huge and uncomfortable, but I did get some great drugs prescribed to me. Five days later I got a purple cast, yes I did get to pick the color, and that was better than the dressing, but still uncomfortable. I was not allowed to put any weight on it and that was hard, but insurance paid for a little scooter. This past Tuesday the cast was removed and now I am in a big black boot going from toes to knee. It is basically like wearing a cast, but I do get to take it off and wash my leg and foot. I was told I can start walking on it as much as I can handle. At first, it was quite painful, but I'm getting better. Well, that's where things stand now and I should be back to 100% around September or October and my doctor says I should never have to wear a brace playing soccer again. I am just so happy and fortunate that someone finally found out what the problem was a knew exactly what to do to fix it. I can't thank the wonderful people at Intermountain Orthopedics enough!

This is the Jones dressing.

This is what I looked like when the dressing came off.

This is my beautiful cast.

This is what legs look like when one hasn't been used for three weeks.

This is what it looked like last night. I sure like being able to take off the boot and air out my leg and foot. I had quite the heat rash when the cast came off.

Pictures of Grandpa

Here are a few pictures of Grandpa during his last week on this earth.

Grandpa Jerry

My grandfather died last night. We love you Grandpa Jerry.

1969 Cougar for sale!!!

We are trying to sell our 1969 Mercury Cougar. If you are interested or know of anyone who is, please show them the following website.

http://boise.craigslist.org/cto/1051738997.html

Ears, Soccer, and...

I knew there was a happy kid in there somewhere! Emerson is a million times happier now that all the pressure in his inner ear has been released by putting in the tubes and getting rid of the infection. He and I went through a very tough Thursday and Fridy, but this weekend and today have been fabulous for him. We went to the MK Nature Center on Saturday to look at all the fish. There were lots of small baby fish swimming around and we had a great time walking down to the nature center with grandma and grandpa.

Outdoor soccer is here once again. I am again organizing the team and I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this up. It is quite time consuming, but well worth it when I get out there on the field. It is a lot of fun meeting new players every season. Brent is still deciding if he wants to play this season or not. He took last season off and I have a feeling he is done with soccer. When you start playing at six years old, eventually you get burned out.

Anyway, we hope everyone is well and we are definitely looking forward to Spring's final arrival!

Ear Surgery

Emerson had his second ear surgery today. We arrived at the surgery center at 6:45 this morning and the nurse took Emerson back at 7:30. At 8:15 we were taken to his bed and he was still sleeping off the anesthesia. The doctor said his adenoids were very inflamed so it is good that they were taken out. He also said that he succtioned a lot of fluid out from behind his ear drums before inserting the new tubes. Emerson slept for about another hour before we could rouse him enough to take him home. Emerson and I dropped Brent off at work by about 9:45 and we headed off to the pharmacy to fill his antibiotic. Of course when we got there we were told they had gotten the prescription, but didn't have any of the antibiotic in stock. Since Emerson is alergic to two of the big three groups of antibiotics, we have to give him medicine that isn't normally stocked in the pharmacy. They did find some for him anyway that they had filled the day before because the prescription had already been called in the previous day by someone else. I love it when doctors communicate with each other. Anyway, we got our prescription and headed home. Emerson ended up sleeping at home for just over another two hours. When he woke up, there was an insane amount of puss and blood coming out of his ears. I called the nurse and asked about it. She told me that he had a major ear infection and it was coming out of the newly inserted tubes. After watching "Cars" Emerson was starting to wake up and feeling much better. He doesn't seem to be bothered at all by his adenoids being taken out. The discharge out of his ears is what is bothering him the most. It is hard to believe that so much puss can reside in one small child's head. The doctor took some out and then even more drained at home. These new tubes should last at least a year instead of the six months from the last ones. Emerson is feeling much better and we would like to thank everyone for all the wellwishes and good thoughts. Thank you so much!

Emerson Ear Update

Emerson will be having ear surgery once again next Thursday, February 19th. Instead of the tubes that last 6-8 months that were put in last time, the doctor is going to put some in that last for a year to 18 months. He will also take out his adenoids (fleshy tissue behind the tonsils) at the same time. That should only add on about 10 minutes to the surgery so the whole thing should take around 25 minutes. The doctor said his breath should have quite the foul smell for 10 days or so because of the adenoid removal. He will be a much happier little man when he recovers. Thank you to everyone for thinking good thoughts for us.

Superbowl 2009

We went to Mom and Dad Dietz's house for Superbowl 2009. Brent made an incredible 10 pounds of hot wings with his secret recipe. It took him a little over two hours to complete the entire process. I think we might just need a bigger fryer so he can fry more than four or five at a time. He has become quite the wing connoisseur. Step 1: marinade them overnight in Brent's special secret sauce. Step 2: make a flour mixture to dredge the wings in, again, a secret concoction. Step 3: fry the dredged wings in peanut oil. Step 4: coat the wings with more of Brent's secret sauce. Step 5: enjoy!

Controlled Burn

Some old abandoned buildings are in the lot across the street from where Brent and I work. There are plans to build a shopping center there so the buildings had to be demolished. Firefighters set up a controlled burn to practice on last week and this week. It was quite interesting to watch, but scary at the same time to know that buildings were burning across the street and it was business as usual. In the second picture you can see our office (CH2M Hill) across the street from the fire. We have parts of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors. Our teamspace on each floor looks out to the buildings so there were always people checking things out. The first picture is taken from one of our teamspaces.