New Mommy in Denver

An eye for an eye.

2010-05-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

I know its been a very long time since I have posted, but we have been going through a lot of stressful stuff. It all start last December, just after my hubby, Jon, was awarded the life saving metal. A patrol car as damaged and he was blamed for it. It suposedly happened on a very cold, snowy and busy night. The next morning the damage was reported by the next officer who drove the car. So Jon was blamed and written up. But he didn't do it and could prove it, so why should he have that on his record. He told his sergant that the security gaurd was with him the last hour of the shift and didn't see any damage on the car. Well, the sergant didn't interview the security guard.

So Jon appealed to the Chief, who wanted him to take a polygraph. If you have half a brain and know anything about polygraphs then you know that they basically don't prove anything. But police departments use them all the time, as well as most federal agencies. So Jon went to take the polygraph and the examiner asked him if he as under any stress. Jon told her that he was expereincing symptoms of PTSD (Post tramatic stress disorder). Well, she administered the test anyway. Not surprisingly, Jon failed the test with flying colors. Jon's therapist, who has been treating his PTSD, told him that taking the polygraph was pobably not and good idea, but the examiner's behavior was unethical.

The next day Jon is put on administrative leave and meeting was set up with HR for the next week to determine what was going to happen to Jon. It was time to call his union laywer, best $50 a month we have ever spent. The laywer suggested we get Jon's therapist to write a letter about his PTSD and Jon also wrote a letter about his PTSD that told about how a Marine buddy killed himself last December. At the meeting, Jon read both letters and his laywer hinted that if he was fired based on the results of the polygraph then that action would be considered unethical treatment of a vetern and the Chief could lose his job. The Chief was surprised and said that in all the years he has relied on polygraph he has never excountered something like this. So a desicion was not made and Jon remained on administrative leave for another 3 weeks. Altogether, we spent 4 week wondering if Jon was going to keep his job. He was finally fired based on the polygraph.

You would think that someone would hear the voice of reason after all of that. Nope. Like I said before, we have very good laywers who are taking an appeal the the state employment board. Last week at date was set and the Magistrate, who acts as a judge, saw our appeal saw the case and did not like what he saw. He sent a notice the police department and campus attornys ( Jon was working for a campus police department if you didn't know). The campus attornys took a look at the files and knew that they were going to get screwed and called our laywers to set up a date to talk about settling.

After all this time of stressing we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. I knew all along that everything would be alright, but it was really hard to keep believing after everything kept happening. The only thing that we have ever wanted out of this whole ordeal is to have Jon's record exponged. But after everthing, I want somebody to get some serious consequences. I want everyone envolved in the desicion to fire Jon fired. I want them to go through what we went through. I want them to be as broke as we are and be punished in every way possible for what they did to us. I really just want justice. Is that too much to ask for? My husband would say that I am ready to get out the torches and pitchforks and burn down the campus. I would settle for this and a few other dirty secrets to be leeked to the school paper or certain TV stations. I know enough to get the Chief and most of the command staff fired. I'd do it in a heart beat but Jon says I can't.

Merry Christmas!!

2009-12-14T10:59:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas from Denver.

To the bride and groom!!

2009-09-18T13:50:00.000-07:00

Two and a half months ago my grandmother died. I really miss her and I can't imagine how my grandfather is feeling. Except that in a few weeks he is remarrying. They say the the sign of a happy married is when the widow/widower remarries shortly after the death of their spouse. Well, this is all really weird to me. My grandma will have died barely three months when my grandma takes a new wife. I know that he has been very lonely and has always had my grandma to take care of him. But it seems a little too soon for me, apparently not for him. Of course , he is not marrying someone that he met off the Internet or has know since the death of my grandma. His fiance is someone he has know for the better part of 60 years. She was his secretary some 30 thirty years ago and her former spouse was his counselor the first time he was bishop. So its not like they just met. Okay, so maybe part of my shock is that you are not supposed to think of your parents, let alone your grandparents, as sexual beings. My mom says that this marriage is not just for companionship. Another part is that he is the only grandpa I have ever known and its strange for me to think of him without thinking of my grandma. My son is lucky to have four living grandparents and two great-grandparents. I am grateful that mine have lived this long and I guess it won't be so bad getting a new grandmother.

Lannon and his Mommy are having Birthdays!!

2009-07-20T13:05:00.000-07:00

One year ago today my baby was born. He was so small and helpless, who know he would grow to be the little pill he is today. He was so egar to get here that he put me into labor on my birthday. I can now say that it was worth all the smiles, giggles and this whole adventure we have been on for the last year. Technecally it started long before that, but who keeps track. After years of taking care of other peoples children, I can say two things: It was much easier when I could leave a the end of the day and being a mommy does not mean I know everything.

So here are some pictures for all you to oh and ahh over. Enjoy!!

This was taken at the 4th of July. We waited in a very long line, but it was worth it.

Ending with a Bang or rather a boom!!

2009-07-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

The last seven weeks I have been babysitting for my mother-in-law's boss, who is a dentist. When I decided to do it I thought that it would make her life at work easier because her boss wouldn't have to worry about child care while her regular sitter was on vacation. Well, it turns out that her regular sitter didn't do squat and gets pays diddly squat. So the job consisted of watching two boys, ages 2 1/2 and 5, four days a week for 5-9 hours a day. It totally sucked. Their normal sitter let them watch TV all day long; they didn't eat real meals, just snacks all day and they never left the house. If that doesn't sound too bad to you, we just imagine the most spoiled, rotten brats you have ever known and double it. I could, however, bring my son to work. But that too turned out to be a bad thing. Any way, to make a long story short, yesterday was my last day. I took them to the zoo, we had fun, then when we got home....the five-year-old fell out of my car and did a face plant on the cement. He didn't break anything, just his lip. Oh and the gum above his teeth was bleeding, profusely. I really thought their mom was going to freek out on me, but amazingly she didn't. But its all over and today I am doing nothing. Yay!!!

On a sad note. My grandmother died a few weeks ago. She was 83 and was in poor health for the last few years. It happened suddenly, but kind of romantically. She died in my grandfathers arms, how sweet is that. Now I wonder whose funeral I'll got to next my mothers or my grandfathers.

New Pictures.!!

2009-04-22T15:58:00.001-07:00

Okay, I finally have some pictures of Lannon. He is 9 months old and so cute.

Who Knew!!

2009-01-29T06:01:00.000-08:00

So, I didn't think it would get to this point so fast. My son is at the stage where he only wants Mommy. I'm flattered, of course, but its kind of insulting to the grandma's when he starts to scream hysterically and won't stop until Mommy holds him. Daddy will do if mommy is nowhere to be found.

The other thing I wanted to tell all of you is that my husband is a hero. Not just my hero. About two weeks ago John was patrolling and was flagged down by a young man whose friend had just collapsed in the back of his car. John started CPR on the sidewalk until the paramedics arrived, about a minute. He spent the rest of the shift at the hospital and writing a three page report about it. When he came home we was really upset about the whole thing. I was too tired to realize it was because it reminded him of when I had my seizure. Yesterday he was nominated for a Life Saving metal. The afore mentioned reason is keeping him from being excited about it. That and work is his very least favorite place to be. (He misses me and the babe.) He was written-up a few months ago and is trying to avoid further write-ups. Although the sign the of a good officer is being written-up one month and receiving a metal the next.

Oh, and I promise I'll post pictures soon. Lannon is getting so big.

I bought a Goat!!

2008-12-11T10:11:00.000-08:00

I don't usually go out and buy strange and smelly animals but this one was for my son. Besides, a goat does not make a good pet. They are, however, good for their milk. Raw goat milk is the next best thing to breast milk, though it also makes you smell like a goat. Since I can't breastfeed and formula has pesticides in it, my baby is eating raw goat milk. Not easy to get here in Colorado. It is illegal to buy or sell raw milk in Colorado. So the way you get around that is to buy a share in a goat and pay boarding fees. I think I called every goat dairy in the metro Denver area to find on that had raw goat milk available. Its the dry season or the time of year you stop milking in order to prepare the goats to give birth, so it was hard to find a goat dairy with any milk. Only two had milk and one of those had shares available. The owner of Fetchin Farms put me ahead of 3 other people to make sure my baby has something to eat. It takes almost an hour to get to her farm, but its worth it. Plus, its a little less expensive than formula. So I didn't really buy a whole goat, just part of one.

My Baby is Cuter than Your Baby!!

2008-12-02T03:32:00.000-08:00

I finally have pictures for all of you to see of my adorable baby boy. When I was in Utah, we got the Boo photographed with his cousin Kristen. Aren't they cute!!

Do worry, there is one of him smiling.

If you look really close they are holding hands. They were just laying there and Kristen just grabbed his hand. Its so cute.

Of course, our album wouldn't be complete without him in a Broncos outfit. In this one he is holding up his index finger. After all, the Broncos did win their game on Sunday and are at the top of their division.

Call me a geek, but I thought it would be cute to where our Broncos jerseys in our family picture. I'm not the traditional "lets get dress up" kind of girl. If I could have managed it, my cat would be in the picture too. He loves watching football too and he has a blue harness to go with his orange fur that makes him a Broncos Kitty. My husband says if the Broncos make it to the Superbowl again he is getting a blue mohawk. If you want one, e-mail me your address, this is on our Christmas card.

As you can see by the time I will post this, it is the wee hours of the morning.
I didn't choose to be up this early and the Boo is actually asleep, too. I'm having an EEG this morning. I went bed to at midnight and got up at 4am. I'm supposed to fatugued for the test, during which they are going to try to make me have another seizure. Its a very good sign if I don't. I still have to be on medication for at least three month and I can't drive for that long, but at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

My Husband Saved My Life

2008-11-24T09:01:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday in the wee hours of the morning, I had a seizure that made me bite my tongue so hard that it rolled back in my throat and cut off my airway. My husband woke up to me gurgling. He described it as the sound you make when all of the air is escaping your body. Thank heaven he is a First Responder. He preformed mouth to mouth and called 911. There is a fire station very close to my house so they probably arrived within minutes. I was taken to a hospital just to the south, in Parker, CO. I remember being aware of being in the hospital but I was very groggy. My husband said that I kept asking for my baby but I could not remember what his name is. Sometime later I was sent to ST. Joe's in Denver, where a bunch of tests were preformed.

All this time my four-month-old baby was at home with my mother-in-law really freaked out. He was in my bedroom when the firemen came and took me. It really scared him. I was told that he was upset all day and only smiled once and my baby is a pretty happy baby.

When I was finally released from the hospital it was only after a I finished an IV bag Dilantin, an anticonvulsant drug, which burned when it when into my arm. So they hooked it up to my other arm and it still burned but I had no other choice if I wanted to leave. Plus, the second arm the drug went in was left sore and bruised for days after.

So now I can't drive for the next three months, because that is how long I will be on the Dilantin and it can cause drowsiness and dizziness, both of which I have experienced. I can't breastfeed any more either because the Dilantin might hurt my baby too. The doctor in the hospital said it would be safe, yet I have to be on a very reliant birth control because it causes major deformities in fetuses and in a study of infants who where breastfeed while their mother were on the drug 7 our of 10 experience intestinal distress. So it could be safe, but I'm not going to take any chances and put my baby at risk. So now he is eating raw goats milks. Amazingly it costs less than formula and doesn't give him gas. I also have had some memory lose, mostly short term but some of my long term memories are little fuzzy too. Sometimes it take longer than usual to recall memories or do normal tasks like writing this blog.

The doctors aren't sure what caused my seizure. I have a bunch of tests next week to find the cause. I think it was caused by stress. But we shall see what the doctors say.

Don't ya just love HOA's!!!

2008-10-24T14:17:00.001-07:00

I went to the annual HOA meeting in my neighborhood the other night. I was amazed how few people showed up. Out of 1087 homes in the HOA only 160 voted on the board member election and even fewer actually came to the meeting. We were told that our HOA is one of the most active in the area, but it seemed to me that very few home owners participated. Oh well, easier for me take over. Yes, I am going to take over my HOA. I'll get to that in minute. First I thought I'd tell you about some of the funny or disturbing things that happened at the meeting. The Sheriffs Dept. sent representatives to talk about safety and answer any questions. One women told us that she has been finding cats with their head severed and asked if that was gang related. The deputies said that it wasn't. They said that an animal had actually severed the heads of the cats and plays with it like a soccer ball. And that is why my cat stays inside. Then another home owner said that his house backed up to a street and asked why his fence is backwards. Apparently the horizontal slats are on the street side of the fence making it easier for one to climb into his yard and harder for him to climb out of his yard. Now that is great construction.
Then some how the fact that the fees for violating the by-laws had gone up considerably. One man was especially mad about that, because it was "interfering with a man making a living." From the sounds of it, his house was not well maintained and he was not able to pay for the violations. This brings me to why I am going to take over the HOA. On the day I went into labor with my son we received a violation for weeds in our front yard. The complaint was made over a week before we received it. Not to mention that the weeds had been mowed down the week before. So we sent a naste-a-graham with our response. A few weeks later we received another violation for hanging clothes in the tree in the backyard. The dryer wasn't drying and the tree had some perfect horizontal branches. Can we say 'petty'. I think we can. It might take me a few years, but I think I can pull it off with help from members of my ward. I would say that close to half of the HOA is made up of my ward members. So there you go, the first step to taking over the world... I mean HOA.

More Pixs

2008-10-09T17:18:00.001-07:00

To Immunize or Not to Immunize.

2008-09-24T09:42:00.000-07:00

I took my son to his 2-month check-up this week and my baby is not so small any more. He weighs 8 lbs and 11 oz; and is 21 1/2 inches long. That puts him in the 2nd percentile for his height and weight. But really these check-ups are to start his vaccinations. I chose not to get him vaccinated yet. I want to wait until he is older and bigger. Yes, I am scared that vaccinations might cause autism. Yes, I have been influenced by family and friends who know people who's children seem to have had some horrible side effect they blame on vaccinations. My neighbor's son developed type I diabetes shortly after his 1-year immunizations. He believed it was caused by the vaccinations.

I just want to do what is best for my son. My doctor seemed to think I was doing the wrong thing and tried to convince me or scare me that the vaccines are indeed safe. She told me all the things that could happen if my son isn't vaccinated at 2-months; how sick he could get or that he could die from preventable disease. She also told me the side-effects of the vaccines; which sounded just as scary or scarier than if my son wasn't vaccinated at all. Honestly, I think that five shots at one time is too many for my son's small body to handle at one time.

My sister had a baby girl 12 days after I did and she is not going to begin vaccinating her daughter until she is a year old. One of my aunts didn't get any of her children vaccinated. I have a cousin who never had one shot until he was 19. There are lots of people who, for religious or other reasons, also don't get their children vaccinated. Are they doing what is best for their children? Am I doing what is best for my son? Or have I been swayed by claims in the media and the opinion of family and friends? I hope that I am doing what is best for my son.

Wordless Wednesday!!

2008-09-24T09:40:00.000-07:00

What can I say, it was a really stinky diaper!!

The Delivery

2008-09-17T08:45:00.000-07:00

All was going well during the delivery until the end, of course. I never thought I would loose my modesty, but I was numb so I didn't care. I'm very grateful for drugs. I had four doctors and all of them had to poke and prod me. Why so many?, you ask. Well, I had two doctors and they each had a resident. After about an hour and half of pushing, my doctor told us that pushing was not working because the baby's heart beat was dropping dramatically when I pushed. She said that we going into the OR and giving me one final chance to push. If the baby was not delivered then she would use forceps and if that didn't work than she would do a c-section. I was little scared but I had faith in this doctor whom I'd never met until that day. Aren't HMO's wonderful. So Boo was delivered by forceps and I spent an hour getting sewn up.

All seemed well, until that night. Boo was not breastfeeding at this point so the nurse made me bottle feed him. At his 12am feeding I had the nurse take him to the nursery for the night. A short time later she returned with the news that he was being admitted to the NICU for low glucose levels. Not the worst thing that could happen, but it was at that point. So the nurse took me the NICU where they were about to put an IV in my son. They asked if I would like to watch. No, no, no. No need to tramatize us both. For the next three days Boo was hooked up to an IV and was a strict three hour feeding schedule. It wasn't so bad compared to what I would go through over the next 4 weeks.

Hello Blogger World!!

2008-09-16T15:14:00.000-07:00

A good friend and blogger Brillig, told me that I just had to create my own blogg. Well, here I go. First I would like to introduce you to my world. I am the new mom of a very handsome little boy, Boo. I have been married two years in October. My husband is a police officer, which will be the subject of a lot really funny stories because people can be really stupid. He just survived the Democratic National Convention. I have a red tabby cat who is a bit on the weird side, to say the least. Also, we just moved into a new house; as did my husband's grandmother. My mother and father-in-law sold their house the same time we were moving. Plus, one of my brother-in-laws just bought a townhouse, which he is renovating. Things are pretty crazy, to say the least.

So being a mom of an infant, I have learned to survive on very little sleep. I was not very happy about this at first, but I'm getting much more sleep now. Except on days like yesterday when the Boo didn't sleep all day until about 6pm. So stupid me wakes him up at 8:30 to feed him thinking I'll keep him up so he well sleep that night. Wrong. He stayed up until 2am and then slept about 2 hours. Today he has slept for almost 6 hours. I just checked on him and he is still alive. Boo was born 3 weeks early, little complications. In fact, I went into labor the evening of my birthday and delivered him about 30 hours later.