Who needs an appendix?

Certainly not Ryan, especially now that he is without one!

The past few days have been a little unexpected, although I can tell you that our story does have a happy ending.

It started Wednesday. At lunch, Ryan opened a brand new jar of banana peppers to put on his salad, and ended up with a tummy ache. Many hours later, despite a hefty dose of Pepto Bismol, Ryan’s tummy ache did not go away. When the pain escalated to his hip and did not ease, he turned to Urgent Care. I’m glad to say the Urgent Care doctor was on the ball, because he diagnosed Ryan with appendicitis and sent him to the ER for an appendectomy.

Ryan was in surgery for about an hour and a half. When surgeon came out with the good news that all was well, he brought these lovely pictures of Ryan’s procedure. Lovely, huh?



“It doesn’t hurt so much here or here. Just right in this area.”

The doctor says: “As you can see, the appendix is clearly inflamed.” If you say so, doc! What I’m looking at looks more like a glob of peanut butter got lodged in the back of someone’s throat. But luckily for Ryan, I was not the surgeon on call.

Regardless of the doctor’s bedside manner, Ryan did make it out of the hospital just fine. He is now home recovering and getting lots of rest.

I guess the big question is, will Ryan ever eat banana peppers again?

Greatest People Ever

(clockwise, from left: Nate, Mandy, Jaime, Jackie)

I honestly don't know what I would do without these people.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACKIE!!

The Shoe

How adorable is this shoe? I love this shoe. I saw it in Target and couldn’t help myself. I had to have it… for Megan, of course.

It’s hard to explain, but the shoe brought on an overwhelming realization. It was the moment Megan needed to start wear shoes. There we were, in Target. Baby barefooted. Her naked toes, wiggling unprotected suddenly felt inappropriate. The only solution: this strawberry cutie.

I wish Megan felt a similar affection for the shoe, but she must not have shared in the same magical shoe moment. In fact, she hates the shoe. She flat out refuses to wear it. Worse yet, she refuses to stand or attempt walking with it on. Very sad.

I am not giving up, though. At some point, Megan has to realize how delightful this sandal is… right?

Second Child Syndrome

You hear people say that parents take less pictures of the second child than they do their first. I wish that weren't true in our case, but now that we've got two children, it's easy to see why that happens. The problem is, if you're taking pictures of child No. 2, who's paying attention to the shenanigans of child No. 1!

Still, that's no excuse for the fact that Megan is slipping into toddlerhood with little evidence that she was ever a cuddly, warm bundle of baby.

Now, at almost 10 months, Megan is becoming little Miss. Independent... exploring every corner of the house without the help from Mommy and Daddy.

So, we take this as a challenge to take more pictures of our Megan before she makes the full transition from baby to kid. Wish us luck!

Click here: To see more pictures of Megan

kids-in-mind

www.kids-in-mind.com

I've just added this website to my blog (see Fav Sites). It lists current movies and their ratings and then lists why the ratings have been selected. There are detailed descriptions of scenes within the movies that fit within the following four rating categories:

• Sex & Nudity
• Violence & Gore
• Profanity
• Substance Use

I love this example from Speed Racer: "SUBSTANCE USE - A boy eats a lot of candy and is later shown acting frantic."

Anyway, it also lists discussions topics the movies bring up. It's an intersting site! Good to know if you have kids.

The Best Little Boar House in Memphis

And this year, they ARE the best!

Every year, my brother competes in the Memphis in May World Champion BBQ contest. It may sounds like a lot of smoking meat and drinking beer, but it's a year-long process just to qualify for judging, and placing in the contest is hard work!

This year was even more challenging, as this was the first year Brian and his team entered independently, without a sponsor. All that extra smoking meat to raise funds must have paid off, because the Best Little Boar House in Memphis placed #1 in the Exotic category. The winning recipe: Lamb.

Congratulations, Brian!

A Room With A View

We were lucky enough to get a 3 bedroom “skyhome” at the Portofino Resort and Spa.
The best part was that, unlike a hotel, there was a living room that was common to all of us. It was nice not to have to wait in lobbies for call separate hotel rooms in order to meet up with everyone. And the full kitchen made it easy to make lunches and dinners without having to go out for every meal!

Right outside of the resort was the beautiful white sandy beach.

Click here: To see more pictures of the condo

Click here: To see sunset pictures, taken from the condo

Click here: To see more pictures of the beach

Peg Leg Pete’s

Of the many restaurants we patroned, our favorite was Peg Leg Pete’s. I don’t know what kind of Pirate history Pensacola Beach has, but there seemed to be quite a bit of Pirate paraphernalia for sale in local shops. History, of course, has nothing to do with why Peg Leg Pete’s is so wonderful. Aside from their EXCELLENT raspberry pińa colada, I think this one sign says it all:



For more pictures: Click here to see a full gallery of all the restaurants we visited (including pictures of the raspberry pińa colada. YUMMY!)

High in the sky, and then not so much for a while

I think the most exciting thing that happened last week was the parasailing. Although Ryan and Shanna have parasailed before, this was a new experience for Teddy and I. And I can’t say it went on without a hitch!

According to the kind folks at Key Sailing, the process goes like this: You suit up, connect to the sail and you launch into the sky for about 10 minutes. Then, whether you like it or not, they dip you into the water before taking off again and landing you safely (half dry) onto the boat.

Ryan and I were first. We connected to the parachute and were off. It was beautiful up there, although EXTREMELY high in the sky. You couldn’t hear anything. The whole experience was quite peaceful. UNTIL… the boat overheats and dies.


Of course, being in the sky, Ryan and I did not know the boat was dead, so we thought we were coming down for our ‘dip’. Oh boy did we get dipped!! We hit the water a little harder than expected and went under for a moment, but the life jackets popped us right back up.

At this point, Ryan and I are still thinking this is all part of the game. We wait for the boat to start up again so we’ll be back in the air.. but that did not happen. The parachute was still up, and the wind was blowing, so we were pulled in the water for several minutes before we noticed our boat captain ripping off his clothes.


Next thing we know, jetskis are in the water, our captain is putting on a life jacket, and (very tan) men are unhooking us from our parachute. “It’s a hellava day at sea, Sir!”

In the end, everything turned out fine, and Ryan and I got a free jetski ride out of the deal. Thankfully, Teddy’s and Shanna’s ride went smoothly.

Click here: To see full gallery of our parasailing adventure

We’re Back!!

And we’re tan, from our vacation in beautiful Pensacola Beach, FL.

This year, Ryan and I turn 30. To celebrate, we spent a week, sans-kids, on the beach! We met up with our college friends, Shanna, Teddy, and Myron, for the occasion.

Although we missed the kids, we knew they were having fun spending a week with their Grandma Geibs. Thanks Grandma!!!

We took approximately 600 pictures. Our computer is having trouble putting them all up on Kodak EasyShare, so I’m going to post the events of our vacation in pieces.