I've joined the Dark side!

I have been converted to the dark side....of guns that is. After my last post on our increasing arsenal I had a very interesting experience at lunch one day. I had an absolutely dead morning at work. I had a four hour case scheduled that cancelled at the last minute leaving me with absolutely nothing to do except check hygiene and hope I could find a filling to do. I know you're thinking I'm a crazy dentist but I really hate just sitting around and twiddling my thumbs. The hygienists were crazy slow that morning as well. I guess no one wanted to come to the dentist. Anyway, I left the practice at 10:15, ran some errands and went home for lunch. We had been out of town the weekend before so I had some extra time to try to get my house in order. I had the stereo on and was cleaning downstairs and then went upstairs after eating. I was finishing some stuff up in the master bedroom, opened our shutters and found a car parked in my driveway with no one in it! My dogs bark at anything that moves and I hadn't heard a peep out of them. I thought maybe someone was walking to the door but still found it odd since anyone I really know doesn't expect me to be home in the middle of the day. I waited a few minutes for the door and nothing. I walked around the upstairs and checked windows to see if I could see anyone on our property and still nothing. At this point I am slightly alarmed and a little annoyed. I had 15 minutes to get back to work and the car was parked in the driveway behind mine (yes, the garage door was closed). I called Eric and tried call my office to see if anyone could pick me up. I opened my garage and ventured outside with garden tool in my hand and ran to the neighbors to see if on the off chance one of their visitors had parked at my house by mistake. No one knew anything about the car. I got the description and the license and went in to try my office again. While I was on the phone, I heard a car door slam and saw a big man getting into the car. I have no idea where he came from! He pulled out of the driveway and left the neighborhood.

So, after that I decided I really needed to know how to use some of the arsenal that has made it's way into my home. Eric has gotten his concealed handgun license so his pistol is never here. This weekend we went to the gun range for Eric to show me how to shoot his pistol. It was too cold to go to the outside ranges for the rifle and shotgun. I went with grim determination and was not at all excited. For the past several weeks Eric and my dad have been trying to talk me into a pistol of my own and a concealed license. I have been trying to keep my mind open so we took a couple pistols and a revolver to the range for me to try. I am truly amazed to say this next statement. I LIKED IT! I didn't think I would ever feel that way about shooting a firearm but I really had a good time and I did pretty well. I could hit the bulls eye consistently at 6 and 12 feet. I guess all those years of dart playing really paid off. Of course since I actually enjoyed myself, Eric insisted that I find a handgun for myself. So....I am now the owner of a Walther 9mm pistol and will try to take the concealed class in the next month or two. Who woulda thunk?!?!?

In other goings on...all of Joshua's medical tests came back normal and he has been symptom free since we went in for the last blood draw! Potty training is in progress but going very slowly. My son is incredibly stubborn! I have to put him in big kid underwear and take away his pants for him to go number 1 in the potty. We haven't even ventured to Number 2 territory. I am hoping he'll start to get the hang of it. He really doesn't like not wearing pants so they are my big bargaining chip! Well, that and a couple M&M's when he makes a successful trip. All of our spring flowers in the yard have started to bloom so I'll leave with a couple of shots I got over the past few weekends

Back Patio Joshua in the Bluebonnets

Sylvester in front of the Columbines

Welcome to the gun show?

Lately my house has acquired an arsenal and I'm not really sure how this all happened. I am not a big fan of guns. In fact I have never shot any sort of gun. Not even a BB gun. I am slightly afraid of the things if I am being perfectly honest. Somewhere, I have lost control and find myself in a household with not one but four guns. These four guns have all come on the scene since November. My lovable, wonderful husband tends to be rather obsessive in his hobbies. When we bought our house three years ago, looking up how to care for a single rose bush evolved into a massive organic gardening mayhem complete with compost bin and collector in my kitchen. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against organic gardening. I tend to have a rather black thumb and admire people who can coerce things to grow and produce healthy, yummy food. It was the staggering amount of information and stuff that went with the whole thing. I think Eric owns just about every organic gardening manual out there.

I should have known I was in trouble when he started spending lots of time with a taxidermist friend talking about hunting. Eric has never really been the hunting type. He's gone out twice that I know of and didn't bring anything back with him. Both experiences have been over 10 years ago. Out of the blue (to me anyway) in November he started talking about how it would be fun to go turkey hunting this spring. I tried to be the supportive wife..."sure honey, if you really want to go" and thought it would blow over. Boy was I wrong! Shortly after the election the gun fever really kicked in. I started hearing eloquent speeches on how gun laws were going to change and we really "needed" a semi-automatic rifle for protection.....WHAT?!?!?!?!? I'm still not sure what we are being protected from, perhaps little green men? This all strikes me as very odd. Didn't you have 8 whole years to yearn for and purchase such a gun? We start on the discussion of guns and how much I don't like them. You always see the horribly sad story of how some kid got a hold of dad's gun and shot a friend, family member or himself in the process. I bring up these points and insist if there is EVER going to be a gun in the house there must be a safe. I didn't think the topic of discussion was over but three days later a shotgun shows up in my house. I am still totally confused on how this happened so quickly and think I must have been bamboozled. The point that really rankles is I wasn't told about the expensive purchase until after it occurred.....GGGRRRR!

So for Christmas, said gun safe entered the house along with an inherited rifle that materialized from my in-laws house. I had never heard of said rifle before but so it goes. I thought, ok he has a hunting gun surely the madness is over. WRONG AGAIN! After Christmas the semi-automatic discussion came up again. He went with the shot gun before because it was so much cheaper. Now he has found a way to assemble the semi-automatic from used parts. Does this sound like a bad idea to anyone else? Over the next several weeks gun parts were continually delivered to my doorstep. In fact one day the mail consisted of gun parts and a prescription drug order....I have a problem with this! I am also feeling like we are under surveillance of some sort at this point. Long story short, the gun has been assembled, it works without blowing anyone up and the count in our gun safe is up to 3.

Eric's birthday was yesterday and what did he want for his birthday? You guessed it...a gun. We now add a 40 caliber pistol to our arsenal and a concealed handgun license. This I can sort of see the practicality of. In his profession, Eric comes across some crazy people. Now the big topic of discussion is teaching me to use it and getting me a license and gun of my own. Where did I lose control?

Spring in Texas

If you ask my friends, they will tell you that I don't care for the climate in Texas. I have lived in Texas longer than I have lived anywhere else but I still miss the changing of the seasons that we used to get in Colorado. I absolutely love the crisp mornings and changing leaves of autumn. I miss the days of sledding and snow man building in winter with fires in the fireplace and hot chocolate with marshmallows. That's being said...I love it when all the spring flowers start to show up here. Bluebonnets are one thing Colorado didn't have. We don't have bluebonnets yet but I have caught glimpses of color in the flower beds as tulips, daffodils, iris and crocus are peeping through the mulch. I also love the redbud trees that are in bloom in many of the neighborhoods near my office.

Our normal Sunday routine includes community group (Sunday school at most churches) and a worship service. I really love the church we go to but lately it seems like the service goes longer and longer. By the time we get home, get Joshua fed and down for a nap and start chores it's almost two o'clock and the day has gotten away from me. I know many of my friends relish the time because they can get away from their kids for a few hours and enjoy nothing but adult conversation. The kids are usually happy in Sunday school so it works well for everyone. For Eric and I it seems like it has become 4 hours away from Joshua and the quality family time we so cherish on the weekend. It didn't bother me when he was little. He would stay with us the entire time when I was still nursing him. As he got older we would take him the the nursery during community group and have him with us in the service where he would fall asleep on my shoulder and nap. Now he has to go for both sessions since he's just not old enough to sit through a service quietly. It probably wouldn't bother me as much if he enjoyed going to Sunday school. I never have a problem taking him to preschool but he does not want to go to Sunday school. He cries each week and beseechingly says "please don't go, mommy." It breaks my heart. We've had a crazy couple of weeks around here so we decided to play hooky from church this morning and check out the flowers at the Dallas Arboretum. Their bloom festival is still a week or two away but there were lots of pretty flowers to see already. Joshua had a great time as always. Anytime he's outside he's happy.

Terrible Twos!

I think the terrible twos have arrived in the Millner household. Joshua has had brief periods of testing boundaries over the past 9 months or so. He'll have a day or two where he tests limits and pushes buttons but it never lasts for long and he is back to his amiable, fun little self. Today, his evil twin surfaced! I walked in to the playroom at his preschool to pick him up and he threw his first all out tantrum. I guess his turn to drive the little car around the room was next and he was expressing his frustration.... He ran across the room screaming like a banshee, hit the wall with both hands and proceeded to throw himself on the floor. All this if front of all the other moms that were picking up their angelic faced children who stared wide eyed at the screaming blondie on the floor. I wanted to sink into the foundation! I managed to haul him off the floor, throw him over my shoulder and retreat outside with a land speed record. All of this on top of his teacher telling me this morning that he has been pushing kids and grunting in defiance. I feel like the worst parent of the year!

We have always used time out for Joshua and very rarely a spanking for discipline. Neither of these seem to have any impact on him what so ever. I have no idea what we are going to do. His reasoning ability is very limited at this point...he is 2 after all. I have started taking away certain privelages and that seems to work sometimes but not consistantly. This evening I think he spent a grand total of 30 minutes in his naughty corner. By bed time he seemed back to normal. I can only hope it holds.... In the meantime perhaps we should stock up on more chocolate and red wine!

Medical Misery

Poor Johsua has had a very tough week. It all started on Saturday night. He woke me up at 2:30 in the morning complaining that his ear hurt. I managed to get him back to sleep until 5:30 when we woke up screaming that his ear hurt. I tried Tylenol since he wouldn't eat anything and he slept fitfully until 7 when the screaming reconvened. After milk, some Advil and some old ear drops that I managed to find we got the crying down to a whimper. A long morning in the pediatric urgent care confirmed a massive ear infection. We had already started down the path a couple weeks ago with some other testing for Joshua. Throughout his little life, Joshua has been king of the blowout diaper. When he was really little, I attributed it to being breastfed. Everyone warned me of the constipation to come when he started solid food...never happened. We had talked to the pediatrician before about it but his growth rate has always been way above average so we didn't pursue anything at that time. Lately, it seems to have gotten worse and it is interfering with potty training. Two weeks ago he had a stool sample test done. If any of you have ever had to do a collection for that, I feel for you! Few things gross me out. I deal with blood and saliva all day long but this was almost too much for me. Of course, Eric was no help what so ever as he stood gagging in the corner! Everything came back normal and since he was still symptomatic we wound up back in the pediatrician's office on Thursday.

I thought about cancelling the appointment but figured if nothing else we could have his ears checked to make sure they were responding to the antibiotic. The antibiotic seems to be doing its job but must taste awful. Poor little guy does a full body shudder evertime he has to swallow it down. Our next course of action in the great gastric mystery was to draw blood and run several tests to look for allergies or malabsorption syndromes. That's when all the real fun began. I was so proud of Joshua. It was the first time our doctor was able to examine him without him screaming like a banshee. I think we took one step forward and two giant steps back with the blood draw experience! I had asked the nurses to just send us to the lab if they thought he was going to be hard to draw blood on. I am a hard stick and have had veins blown before...not a pleasant experience and one I wanted to save Joshua from. They held him down...all three of them and put the turnequet on. A vein came popping straight up and I thought we had it made. Unfortunately they used too large a suction device and blew the vein. Without pausing to let him calm down, they switched to the other side, got in the vein and somehow managed to blow that one too. They got some blood but not enough. By this time, Joshua is hysterical, I'm ready to scream at someone and we've been there for an hour and a half.

Long story short, we have to go to a lab and try the blood draw again. I had to take my poor little guy back to school since I had a full afternoon of patients ( I had missed a day and a half at the beginning of the week with a stomach bug and all of them had been rescheduled once already). To top off his day, he slipped on our bed making a grab for one of the dogs and hit the footboard. He woke up this morning with big bruises on both arms and a black eye (the flash washes out the color...it's really dark)! He is so pale that any and every bruise comes up with a lurid purple and black swirl and progresses to the lovely greens and yellows. It seems to take weeks for them to fade entirely! Next week is bound to be a better week.....please!

Joshua sings!

Joshua is absolutely entranced by music. At his preschool, they have a man (Mr. Guy) come once a week to sing songs and play instruments. I know he plays guitar, piano, trombone, clarinet and trumpet for sure and there are probably others. Joshua is so enthused by music that he got his own kid sized guitar for his 2nd birthday and has forced Eric and I to dust the cobwebs off our old instruments. I am truly amazed at how much I have lost when it comes to reading music. I look at the pieces I used to play in high school and realize that the all state player I was is long gone. We have purchased several easy flute/clarinet duets to play for Joshua much to his delight. The music reading is slowly coming back. I am hoping to get comfortable enough to play at church from time to time but I still have a long way to go.

Recently Joshua has started singing with his guitar. He has several songs that he knows from Mr. Guy that most of you have not heard of. I had not heard of them either until we bought the Mr. Guy CD that now plays in my car over and over and over.... He also likes to sing the ABC's, Twinkle, Twinkle and Jesus Loves me. Most of the time you have to catch the singing by stealth. If he thinks you are listening the tuneless toddler treble instantly stops. Luckily, our video camera is very small and he was in a very cooperative mood to serenade Mommy for this video.

Start of a new adventure

Ok, so I finally caved in a started a blog. I don't know that all I have to say is all that interesting to everyone out there. This is mainly a delivery device for photos and videos to grandparents and friends that have yet to join the facebook movement. I'll try to be inventive with posts...we'll see how that goes.