Its now Monday

Here is the thing. I went to work tonight for some OT. When I called home on my break at 9:30, the boss was a little weepy because Ellie was not going to be so good again tonight. I am not sure why this child just will not go to bed. Looks like we are going to have to be hard asses and just put her up there until she learns when bedtime is.

In other news, Kris and Ellie had dinner over at our friend T's house the other night. T has a little girl, H, and the girls always have fun together. Lots of pics were taken and then emailed to us from T. I was looking through them and saw this one.




Does anyone remember the post I wrote that had the picture of Ellie standing on a chair flashing us?? Well once again I have to say that judging by this picture, my little girl may be a hit at spring break. Lord help us:)

Greg

Early night and wine.

Well I think we have figured out why the child has not been wanting to go to sleep. You see it started with hating the bath (which she used to love), then it has moved to bedtime. Well tonight we put Ellie in the tub, and she started crying about poop being in the tub. Kris made sure E knew that the tub had been cleaned and that there was no poop or puke in the tub. After about 40 seconds of talking, Ellie sat in the tub and had a good ol time!!

Then the light came on. We thought maybe she was upset that she had puked in her room and on her sheets. So when it was time for bed, we went upstairs and made a production of cleaning the floor and changing the sheets so that there was no puke anywhere. Well guess what? SHE WENT TO BED!!!! It only took a couple of books and a sip of apple juice, and she was out for the night! HIGH FIVE TO THE PARENTS. For once in a week we used our heads and figured this thing out.

EDIT: The floor and sheets were actually clean, except in Ellie's mind!!!

So to celebrate we came downstairs and drank some of this.



Ohhhh delicious Cabernet, you are a trusted friend:) This one is from Chile. It is delicious.

Greg

11pm? Really??

Can someone explain to me why my 2 year old is still awake at 11pm? Also, can you explain why she throws a huge tantrum when we try and put her to sleep?

This is really starting to get to Kris and I. Fairly ridiculous if you ask me.

Greg

What a HAM!!

So the child was super grumpy during the morning today and nothing seemed to please her. After lunch she asks me to go outside and slide. So I says to myself, I say self, it is 70 degrees out and it would be nice to go out and enjoy the weather.

I tell Ellie to find her shoes while I put in my eyes (contacts) and we will go to the park. Now the shoes are on, I have my camera, and we head out the door to the park. I am telling you, my kid is such a ham when it comes to pictures now. When you ask her to say cheese, she gives you the funniest damn smile. Observe.




Ok, so at the park we went down the slide.



And we sent "baby" down the slide......


...then we sat on a bench and look longingly at the slide.....


.......and we touched some trees (exciting I know).


And shortly after this we walked home. Now I know my little girl has been tired, but just refuses to give in. This is why I was shocked to see this after we started watching a movie when we got home.




Thank you slide! You are a truly wonderful friend!

Greg

Blood Born Pathogens and Thank You's

Good morning all! First off I want to say thank you for all of your kind words. I am getting ready to call Daddy-O and ask him if we can talk soon, and feel like I am making a good step towards figuring out how to make me better. Yesterday was actually pretty good. I woke up and felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

Yesterday I had training for work. 8 hours of talking about how to pass medication and also blood born pathogens. Not real exciting stuff, but what can you do?

After training I was able to go and pick Ellie from daycare. I like when I get to do this because it is usually Kris that goes to pick her up. It is fun to show up and see Miss E's face when I pick her up.

Then we went to Daddy-O and BOO BOO's house for some dinner. Dis-patch also met us there, and we all had a good time together.

We came home and Ellie was obviously tired, but she would not go to bed. When we tried, she would just stand at her door and scream. So I brought her downstairs and rocked with her until she fell asleep. All was good.......for a while.

Then at 2in the morning Ellie woke up again screaming. I tried to rock her upstairs, but she screamed and cried so hard that she puked. Twice. WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!

So we came downstairs again and she wanted to lay on the couch. So I put her on the couch and she eventually fell asleep. When we went back upstairs, she slept the rest of the night.

She has been doing this screaming thing for the last few days, and I do not get it. Hopefully it will be back to normal soon, because this getting up in the middle of the night stuff is driving us crazy.

Well that is about all for now. I have to work the next couple of nights, then have the weekend off.

Greg

Really?? Has it been 4 days?

I can now see that I have neglected my posting duties the last few days. I can't believe that it has been 4 days!!

Not a whole lot new. I worked the last 4 nights, and overall it was not horrible. It was not great either, but I think that is because I am just generally unhappy at my job, and not because of the job itself. I have become supremely stressed out with work. All I think about, all the time, is how much going to work is going to suck. It has really taken a toll on my mind, and things are not going good. On Saturday night, a crazy guy (not just a name for him, he really is crazy) had an episode at 4am. He was not in any real trouble, and he was still breathing fine. We tried to talk with him, and he wouldn't say anything. This went on for about an hour until my Sgt told another deputy and myself to just lift him up and put him on his bunk. There was more that went on, but the real problem with this whole situation is that while I am there to help this guy (because that is what I get paid to do), all I really wanted to do was kick the guy and yell at him and tell him to stop playing his f**king games. I was so angry that I could have screamed. Well, I wrote my report, came home, slept, went back to work, and all the time was thinking about this incident from the night before. I could not shake the awful feeling that I had because I didn't want to help this guy. For the first time ever I really didn't care if the guy was ok or not. This, as you can imagine, is not a good thing for someone in law enforcement.

I recently have been reading a book called "The Will To Survive: A mental and emotional guide for law enforcement professionals and the people who love them." It was written by a State Trooper who got shot in the face and lost his sight and career.

Long story short, this guy and his book have shed a lot of light on things for me. In the midst of this thing going on at work, I remembered what this book had said about stress and how it affects your career. So last night I did one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I went to my Sgt and asked him for the employee assistance phone number. This is a program provided by the county that puts you in touch with a counselor to help you through your problems. It is basically going to the shrink, and it is free of cost for up to 6 sessions with them. I am ridiculously nervous about this. I am also scared to find out why all this is piling up on me. I have always been good at not letting things stress me out and carrying it with me (more than the norm anyways) and I just can't figure out why this is going on.

So now I have 3 choices as I see it. One: I can not do anything and continue on (which I know is not the correct option); Two: I can talk with Daddy-O and see if that helps (he was a cop for 30+ years and he would know some of the stress I deal with); and Three: I can contact these people and start seeing a shrink. I think I really would rather talk to Daddy-O first because he is someone who knows what it is like, and he is someone I trust.

I am fairly embarrassed about this whole thing. It makes me feel like I can't handle myself, how will I ever help raise little Ellie.

Oh man. That was a lot to share huh? Sorry to drop that on all of you.

Greg

Can you spell H O S P I T A L

Well we can! We were there yet again today for Ellie. She has continued with the puking and now has become lethargic. She is also very, very warm when you touch her skin. Yet she has not temp. How weird is that?

So it was determined that she has yet another ear infection, fluid in her other ear, a sinus infection, and maybe some sort of respiratory infection. What the hell? Could this little girl be anymore sick this winter? They gave her yet another shot of antibiotics called Rosefren and we are suppose to go back tomorrow for another shot. The doc is thinking that Ellie is one of those kids who needs longer than the standard 10 day treatment to get rid of the junk in her body. So who knows. She took a 3 hour nap when we got home and has since eaten about 3/4 of a banana and has kept it down.

I hope we are to the end of this crap. I am sure Ellie is tired of being sick, and I know Kris and I are tired of it all to. I think I may move myself into a bubble to keep the germs out. HA HA......bubble boy!

Well a new episode of Diego, or Dora (I can't remember which) is starting and I must devote all my attention to it or Ellie will flip out.

Have a nice night all!

Greg

Hi Wednesday, how are you?

It has been 2 days since I posted last. Not much has been going as I have been working. I wish I could tell you that work was great and I couldn't wait to put in my 20 years and then retire. Unfortunately, I can't say that. Things are very uncomfortable, and its only going to get worse. There are things that are going down that just are not good. Very stressful times.

Ellie has been sick the last day or so. Now that the warmer weather is here maybe we can get rid of the sick germs in our house. I am so tired of sick that it makes me sick. I don't think that I have ever been as sick as I have been this last winter. BOOOOOOO SICK!!

Miss E just woke up from her slumber so I suppose I should go and get her. She is sleeping really good on her big girl bed and it was a smooth transition. Next up? Potty training, for real this time:)

Greg

Productive Sunday

I was so damn productive today it was ridiculous. This morning around 11 am I went outside and started doing some work that I was anxious to get done. The first thing I did was to hang a 18ft section of white rope lights on the back deck to give us some light back there. Then I moved an electric outlet from inside the garage to outside under the roof overhang where the rope lights were mounted. When all was said and done, my handy work actually did work!!!

Next I moved on to my car. I changed the oil, mounted a bracket to hold my ipod, and then put the car away. I am planning on cleaning said car on Wednesday if the weather holds up.

I also worked a little in the yard today. I put a bird feeder back up that had fallen over, hung some wind chimes, started to get the rest of the summer yard ornamentation ready, and even got the picnic table and chairs out.

We went into RW around 4:30 to eat some dinner at Kris' parents house. It was a nice day so they invited us over for a little grilling action. Daddy-O fired up his new grill that he got last year, and made us some dang delicious hamburgers. Here is the aftermath.



My FIL keeps the cleanest grill I have ever seen!! After dinner Daddy-O and BOO-BOO took Ms. Ellie for a walk while Kris and I went around RW so I could take some photos. Here is the result.






Well that is about it for me tonight. I am heading off to bed so I can be well rested for going to work tomorrow. Oh wait, I am watching Ellie tomorrow which = no sleep for this guy until Tuesday morning.

Greg

Lazy Saturday?

Ellie and I made the drive into RW this morning and met my aunt at good ol Fiesta for some lunch. We got there a little early and Ellie decided that she liked chips and salsa, and proceeded to eat a lot of it. I am willing to bet that she may be unhappy with her choices in the morning.

Lunch was good and it was good seeing Auntie V. It was nice to see her, as we don't get together very often. I think it is weird that even though we live about an hour apart we never see each other. I encounter the same problem with my best friend who lives in the cities. It is amazing how every ones lives can be hectic and busy that it is hard to make the time to see each other.


Here is a couple photos from lunch today.





After a delicious lunch, Ellie and I came home and E took a nap. Kris' mom and dad came over around 1 to play some cards. Fun was had by all and eventually Ellie even helped us shuffle the cards! Around 6, the rents left and we went upstairs to do some cleaning and putting E's clothes away. I took down her crib (since she is a big girl now and sleeps in a twin bed), we read some stories, and eventually put Ellie to bed for the night. Kris and I have been downstairs relaxing and catching up on shows that were on the DVR.

Nothing big planned for tomorrow, but the weather is suppose to be nicer than it has been for a few days now. Sun is suppose to be out, and the temps should be in the high 40's. Maybe we will get outside for a walk, or maybe I can even sneak away for a little while to take some pictures.

Until next time....

Greg

Old Man Winter

April showers.........OK I can handle April showers because they bring May flowers. April snow showers though?!?!?!?! One thing comes to mind when I see this out my window.

KISS MY ASS OLD MAN WINTER!!!!!! Oh, and Mother Nature, you can suck a fat one too! Thanks:)

Your Friend,

Greg

Work Day 2

Well my first night back was good........and irritating. There are some real idiots in our discipline segregation unit. I had 2 different A**holes that would not lockdown last night. My bronchitis got tested last night as well. I was concerned about how pepper spray would affect the illness I had, and was told not to worry about it. In fact, Kris said to me "what are the chances you will even have contact with pepper spray anytime soon??" Well that proved to be the nail in the coffin. I ended up pepper spraying one of the idiots in D-Seg last night (on orders from the Sergeant) and I actually held up pretty well.

In other news, it is raining and windier than a mother here. I am hoping that it does not turn to snow, which I don't think it will. I have heard that it is all supposed to stay north of us. Fingers crossed here! I have the heat turned up and the windows closed so that I cannot see the misery outside. It sure does sound cold through the walls though!

Time to get ready for hell.....wait no....I mean work. More tomorrow.

Greg

Oh Captain; you are so right!!

THIS IS NOT FUNNY ANYMORE!!!! They are forecasting snow for the next 2 days here. This sucks big........well lets just say it sucks.

So I am off to work in about an hour. I have not gotten much sleep today, so it should be about 24hrs with no sleep by the time I get home in the morning. Yippie.

I think thats all I have for now. Pretty boring I know, but there is just nothing going on right now. So with that, I bid you farewell!!

Greg

Work and Coughing

Tomorrow night I go back to work. It should be fun. Or not.

Today we really had a good day. Ellie and I played all day, and by the time Kris came home, E was completely worn out. She is so much fun right now.

Well the wife and I are going to head off to bed.

Greg

Fogot to mention

I reinstated my badge 365 blog. In a sick haze, I decided that because I had missed a few days, that it was best to no longer do it. I have realized the errors of my ways. It is back up and I am going to start it again, and try to post a pic from my life every day for the next year. Wish me luck!!

Good Bye Old Friend

I received news from my sister today that our family dog, Tequila, moved on to the next world today. After many battles with tumors, cysts, and general health problems this last year, my mom decided to put him down Monday morning. For the longest time Tequila had a golf ball sized tumor on his right rib cage. When I talked to mom tonight she said that in the last 4 days it had gone from golf ball sized to about grapefruit sized. He had many problems breathing over the last week, and had taken most of the 12 tramadol pain pills he had been prescribed. Mom finally said that she could no longer keep him in such discomfort and pain, and decided it was time for him to feel no more pain.

At first I was not to emotional one way or the other, but after hanging up with my mom, I went into the kitchen and had a mini break down. That silly little dog, who loved to chase squirrels, jump off the rocks, and cuddle on the couch, was in our family for 14 wonderfully happy years. He warmed our hearts and will be missed.

Good Bye Old Friend

Destin for spring break?

Tell me if this girl is poised to go to spring break.














I sure hope "girls gone wild" no longer exists by the time she is in college.

Sickness recant

Well, I may have spoken too soon. It turns out that while I was feeling better on Wednesday and most of Thursday, I may have jumped the gun on being not sick. You see, I started to feel like crap again last night. Then today while watching miss Ellie, I was trying to wash dishes and almost passed out at the sink.

Soooo, we make the trip to urgent care tonight only to find out that I have bronchitis. Yes, FRICKIN BRONCHITIS!!!!!!

Rest oh friends that have had contact with me this week, as the doctor said that it is not contagious. And certainly not contagious like diarrhea (the docs words, not mine).

So this guy got a note, and directions from the doc, to stay home the rest of the weekend and take it easy. He gave me zithromax to take for 5 days, because apparently when you have asthma, bronchitis can work its way into pneumonia. So that is the fun I get to have this weekend. What are you doing??

Greg

Meet Emmy

This is my little cousin, Emmy. My uncle waited until late in his life to get a start, but look at what a cute little thing it produced!! Click HERE to meet Emmy!!


P.S. Why is it every time my child wants/begs to watch Shrek, I end up watching it alone in the family room while she plays with her toys in the other room? Then if I turn it off, its like she has magic ears and comes running screaming SHREEEEK!!!!

Greg

May I laugh for just a minute?

Laugh #1: Google tells me it is raining outside where I live right now. It is not. It is sunny as could be!!

Laugh #2 (and most possibly the best, most awesome laugh of all): Kris forgot to set the DVR to tape NKOTB this morning and quite possibly may have missed the entire performance before she called me to start the DVR...........AAAAHHHHHH HA HA HA HA HA HA HAHAHAHAHAHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!!!!

The end:)

Felling better?!?!!!!

I am officially feeling better than yesterday.

Thank you Tylen.ol Cold medicine!! Between that and the ny.quil I have taken, things are looking up!

I have been sick from work the last 2 days, and have done pretty much nothing. I have slept a lot, which I do not normally do, which is good for me I think.

Lots of drama going on at work right now that I would rather not be a part of, this in turn = lots of stress. UUGGGHHHH.