Making sure your patient knows what you are talking about

This weekend I had an amusing experience- beside the storm...

A woman was talking to me about someone she knew that had to have shoulder surgery- so I said- "what is she having done, and A-C joint repair?" She said "no" and she thinks she tore her "labia"... I smiled and put my arm around the woman and told her that is a Labrum in the shoulder and the labia is a "lady part"-she was embarrassed-so I told her how one of my teachers and I confused mastitis and mastoiditis-if you are a woman you probably know mastitis, but mastoiditis is an ear infection that has grown into the bone behind the ear. I also told her about how I used to always confuse zantac the antacid and xanax the antianxiety med when I was a kid working in the pharmacy. Its funny, but it isn't-so next time your doctor tells you something you dont totally understand- ask for clarification- everyone makes mistakes-even the pro's

a not so slumber party

So if your not from buffalo- a huge wind storm hit us this sunday morning. We lost power like we usually do- but this time it was not only our block but the actual lines to just our house were pulled off the roof. The cable lines were pulled off too- so we had no power,heat,phones,tv or Internet. So after we got up sunday morning and saw that our power lines were hanging in the street-we called the power company and just hung out a bit. Then joe decided to take a look out side-it was pretty bad. we had trees down everywhere and we realized that the power was not coming on anytime soon. So joe went out to buy a chainsaw and then we went to my mom's house for dinner. When we got home that night- we still had no power or heat-so we went to my sister's house to sleep. Ella was a trooper- she sat on the couch and watched tv with her hands folded in her lap.

Then we had to find a place for Ella to sleep- my mom suggested a drawer. So we raided Josh's room and made her a bed- well, josh's drawers weren't long enough- but aunt kelly's drawers were just right! Ella slept from 10pm to almost 7:30am in that drawer- I should have taken it home...

Well unlike ella- we didnt get much sleep- Allison, our niece was missing her mom- so she was up at 2:30 in the morning. What was funny about it was that I was sleeping in a room with the monitor to Allison's room connected to it. Of course I didn't know it was there- so in the middle of the night- it wasnt too weird to hear a kid crying- but when I first heard her yell "mommy" I totally got freaked out and thought Kelly's house was haunted for a few mins.

Long story short- my mom and I got no sleep last night-and was sucks even more is that the rest of the day my mom worked a double and my day was...in a word, miserable.

But the good news is that our power and heat was turned on at 1pm and the phones and internet was about 30 mins ago-

The house was still really cold when we got here- so I had to dress ella in a ton of clothes and two hats, bunny slippers and socks for her hands- she looked like a true polish kid in all those clothes...

Anyway- wish joe luck with his chainsaw- he has his work cut out for him.

yay! christmas

Well, Christmas was super fun this year. We spent Christmas eve with our whole family at my mom's. Before that though- we decorated ella's packandplay with lights. She was so excited that you can't even see her hands in this picture because she is wiggling so much.

Ella wore her big girl dress to the party- all the girls got the same dress from babcia and the same PJ's for the big night.

Some how we managed to get all the kids together in front of my mom's tree- Josh did a great job of holding ella- she wasn't so happy about it though.. Ella did get some great presents from Santa and the whole family. She got a ton of toys! and she is so thrilled at each one. Babcia got her a toy that she can lay under and it plays music and lights up-kelly got her clothes and an activity table and Uncle Jake and aunt Heather got her a new bedroom set. Her room is officially a little girls room now with all her new toys and the pink crib set-ill post pics of it soon-it really cute.

Ella finished the night in her brand new PJ's sleeping on babcia's lap and devouring her thumb. It was a big day for her.

A lot of funny things happened this year- including Santa/aunt nancy-who couldn't see, read or talk as she passed out presents-and almost passed out herself from a combination of a heavy santa suit and emphysema, more of Allison's drinking problem, Josh and the belly dancing kit, trying to get the kids to sit still for pictures, dinner, presents and not calling out the aunt nancy/ santa, and then of course the wrapping-paper-ball war between all of us. Joe got it all on tape and is making a video for our blog about it. He just needs to edit it down.

Hope everyone else had as good a Christmas as ours!

busy weekend

Ella was in the living singing Christmas tree again this sat. She did a great job- it was way better then last time- maybe because Joe got her dressed instead of the lady that she didn't know. But it was really great- ppl cried when she did and she even did her puppy lip sad face into the camera. I'm really happy she did it-

Right after we went to Nathan's b-day party. It was really fun- Santa was there so Ella got to meet him. There were a ton of other kids there-

We have also been spending a bunch of time working on a Christmas card pic for everyone- Its not working out...

none of our pics are card worthy yet. We have tried lots of stuff-I would really like to put her in my mom's manger and take a pic- but i think its covered in snow at the moment- maybe tomorrow we can? Ella's favorite pose was when we put her in the Santa hat- she was so distracted by the fluffy part it didn't work :( but at least she had fun!

Save Our Sinks!

Please please please help save our sink! Things that work in our house have become an endangered species-please don’t let this same fate befall our sink! My dear sweet husband has tried 2 bottles of Drano, Dad’s questionable “toilet snake”, Smandrew’s pipe wrenches and cleaning the trap. The broken sink is now draining into our dishwasher and onto the floor. And it is horrible trying to keep things sterile for ella when you don’t have a sink. So in the spirit of Christmas and for all the times Joe fixed your computers- please save us.

Check your facebook for a "save our sinks" funraiser near you!

Ella and the tree!

Well- ella was baby jesus on Sunday at the Chapel. She was doing good but then she got all sad just before she went on stage. The pic is of her in her dressing room getting all swaddling-clothed out. I have some video of the show but she was so upset they gave her a nuk on stage so they dont turn her around until about 2.5 mins into the video. We will get a better dvd later from the church- this is just joe and I standing in the back- but if you watch the video to the end you will see she is screaming with the song- they said it was the most life like baby they had this year!

We go again on Saturday- hopefully she will be happier to be a part of the show this time.

This weekend is also her cousin Nathans first birthday! So I guess that is where the after party will be if anyone wants autographs.

Back to school for Joe

Joe is going back to school in Jan. He is doing an online bachelor's program for Game Software Developement. He is going to Westwood college. He got the idea from Ben. Hopefully it will only take a couple of years to complete.

We are looking forward to doing something new and the program has 100% placement-so feel free to volunteer as a co-signer for his loans!

thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was fun with the family this year. Here is a pic of Sydney saying hi to ella. Bacia got ella a super cute outfit. She also had a bib that proclaimed she was "my little turkey" - it was kinda over kill-but she is a cutie-

but anyway- mom cooked a whole bunch, ali hit her head a bunch, aunt nancy talked a bunch and I got a bunch of cute pics of mom's cat

ya I just found this on Joe's Pc- Good times

still at home with dad

I'm not sure why but i couldnt post these pics with the video, maybe it was just too much at once.

but here is a big ella smile. She is two months old today and at the doctor this week she weighed 11lbs and 3 oz. She is in the 50th percentile for pretty much everything. We have mostly been hanging out at home- ella has been spending a lot of time with barb the baby sitter-who just loves on ella all day. School is winding down for the semester- so I'll be home more in just a few weeks!

at home with dad

This Joe and el messing around. I think she actually might be ticklish.

gettin big

Here is a pic of ella at one week old and another from today- sevenish weeks old. She went from skinny and itybitty to chubbers and happy in the blink of an eye. Its fun for us because she is all smiley now and stays awake and plays for like an hour and a half inbetween naps. But the best part about getting bigger is those rare occasions where she sometimes sleeps for six to seven hours. Its amazing- really- the best thing ever after you have been a zombie for a month and a half-

and of course more sleeping means joe gets to do more of what he loves best!

hats!

Aunt chrissy came to visit this week. I love the look on El's face here- ya chrissy confuses me too.



So when I was a kid- I seriously hated turtle necks. They are ugly and worse then that- they constrict your neck-well anyway- my mother and sister loved to dress me in them- that and blouses with some kinda beige skirt or pants. It was rough...As a little girl I was no fan of beige.



so ella has an article of clothing that she loathes as much as I hated turtle necks, and its all her hats:(



Now-I love hats, and I love putting hats on ella-but she gets all crabby faced about stuff on her head. On the up side- in 20 years she can complain about it on her blog too :)

Honestly though- who could resist this face? Super cute bonnet-

Grandma visit

This past weekend Joe's grandma luckman and aunt tawnya came to see ella for the first time. we found out that grandma had an aunt ella- so that was cool-ella's first name and middle name are family names from both sides of the her family now.

It was fun to see them, they brought kyle and kurtis, the twins. She was pretty crabby for them- They got to see some of her very wrinkly faces. It was a really nice visit and we are looking forward to Christmas with them.

Ella also might get a "moby" this week. I heard about it from my sister inlaw heather. Her kids love it-and ella always wants to be held- so we thought it would be a good idea. Here is a pic of her in it- I dont know that we are using it right- but she was happy to be there. It kinda makes you feel pregnant again though :( but if it lets me get some homework done- we are totally on board.

Ella also finally got her JJcole for this winter. she looks weird in it cause its so big- but its super thick and snuggly so it was a must have for our weather. Here are the before and after pics-

They are putting just about anything in hotdogs these days

Halloween was fun last night- it was a bit crazy cause we got there late and we were all rushin around. But the kids were all super cute- I wish I had more pics but i forgot to take my camera out until the end :( wow isnt my mom's house messy in the pic behind midas? weird.

halloween

Halloween was a little crazy lastnight- we got there late and it was a huge rush-

but the costumes were super cute.

Midas and ella were hot dogs-josh was spiderman, emily was a kitten, sydney was a flower and nathan was a bee. Unfortunally, I remembered to pull out my camera way too late.

syd finally met ella- and i finished her room

Sydney and nathan we the last of the cousins to meet ella- we just couldn't seem to hook up - but they thought she was cool.

and I finally finished ella's wall- I think it came out pretty well