The axe has fallen; the pink slip has been delivered, etc. etc

I officially received word today from my department head that my position has been eliminated. As soon as I saw her name on the caller id I knew what she was going to say, because she never calls me. Out of the 14 people in the department they are keeping just 4. All I have to say is good luck to the 4 that remain because you are going to need it!!

In some respects, I am relieved to now know the truth of what is going to happen. There has been too many rumors and lingering thoughts for the past 3 months. I am just glad that I can put this issue to rest and focus even more on finding a new job. I wish I had something in the works, but unfortunately I don't. I will be sending out a lot of resumes blindly to companies in hopes of drawing some attention.

I don't officially have my severance package just yet. My dept head has to fly in to DC next week and receive her severance package and work on our severance package (sounds like fun huh). She is going to see if we can't just be paid out for the 60 days that we are required to be given notice before losing our jobs since we really don't have any work at this point. I am fine with that as long as we still have insurance for the 60 days. Severance would kick in after that and I believe that I will have 15-16 weeks coming.

That's the cheery news for this Monday!!

Weekend Roundup

It was a really low key weekend. Saturday and Sunday were both kinda gray and yucky outside. Saturday we wanted to spend it laying on the couch sleeping, but Miss Madison had other ideas. This is how Jeff spent his Saturday morning.

The rest of the day was pretty much spent like this. We did go and run a few errands, but they were nothing big.

Sunday we got to sleep in until 7:15!!! It was heaven. I know most people think that 7:15 is early, but when you have a 3.5 month old, that's really late!! I got up and fed Madison, and Jeff went to the grocery store. After he got back, and we had put everything away, we played with Madison. She's really, really wanting to roll over. She's done it before, but it's been when she's laying on our chests, and she doesn't really have to work that hard. However, she's now wanting to roll while she's on the floor. Jeff and I have been playing a game with her where we roll her over. She loves it. So, we were rolling her around on the floor when we saw this...

Spring is here, and that means there are a ton of birds in our yard now. The cats are in hog heaven!

My parents and Grandpa came up for a few hours this afternoon to see Madison. My parents are getting ready to go to Barbados for 11 days, so they won't get to see little Missy for nearly 2 weeks. It'll be the longest stretch my mom has gone without seeing her. She's made it a point since she was born to see her at least once a week. So, here they all are on the couch passing around Madison.

They didn't stay very long. We watched the Texas-Memphis game, which was a joke. Madison really, really likes basketball. Actually she just likes TV in general, but I think basketball has a lot of movement that she likes. Here she is laying on the ottoman watching the game.

And last but not least, we just don't have very many pictures of Jeff's beloved Nacho on here, so I decided I would take a pic of him. He got to come in today because it was kinda drizzling outside. Of course, he LOVES to be inside. I don't know if the rest of us enjoy it as much though!

I hope everyone has a great week. Hopefully, we can do a little better about posting than we did last week!

For those of you having withdrawals....

It's been a few days since we have posted, but we haven't had anything too exciting to post. Just our normal routine stuff this week. We have been hearing a few of you are having the shakes from seeing new pics of Madison, so I have taken some time out of my busy schedule (yeah right) to post a few things.

The only news this week is that I know for sure that I didn't get the job that I interviewed with. I know that you are thinking like I did, what were they thinking? But oh well, I am continuing to apply until I find something else. I still don't know what's going on with the Red Cross. Supposedly, the decision was made on Thursday (yesterday), but we haven't heard what the decision is. At this point, I think that they will pink slip everyone and then re-classify the jobs (equates to less pay). So, we will continue to impatiently wait to see what's going to happen.


We took a picture of Madison this morning before daycare in a onesie that she has had a while, but we haven't remembered to put her in it. We decided we better before she grows out of it and the weather decide to stay warm and she can't wear it. As you can see from the picture, she is starting to develop a little belly. We think it's pretty cute!




Well, I have been chilling at Starbucks after my doctor's appointment. I am heading downtown to pick up Jen to take her to lunch. Bye for now!

Night Feeding

With Jen going back to work, we have modified our schedule a little bit as far as who feeds Madison when. I have been picking Madison up from daycare so that she can be home a little longer than and so that we can make sure that she is eating sufficiently. Madison is starting to adjust back to being at daycare this week. Tuesdays and Thursdays are typically harder days because there are more kids there which means more noise and typically less individualized care. Madison is increasing the amount of formula that she is taking on a daily basis.

I typically feed around 5:00 before Jen gets home from work. When it's bath time I get to give her the bath and then Jen does the last feeding of the night so that she can spend a little time with Madison. It took a little bit of an adjustment for me to do the bath and get her ready for bed, but now that I am into a routine its not bad at all. Madison has been doing really great on sleeping through the night. She is in her crib by 8:30, if not before and a lot of times is still asleep when I go into feed her about 6:15 in the morning. Once she wakes up in the morning, it usually takes her less than 15 seconds to smile at me. If I am half asleep when I go in that usually wakes me up! She is definitely a morning person, which is great except on the weekend when we want to sleep in!

Here' a pic of Madison during her last feeding of the night. She enjoy's looking at Fanny(the ceiling fan in her room). She loves Fanny, especially when it's moving. She just smiles away. She typically stares at it when she is feeding and sometimes leaks formula everywhere because she is smiling. It's great! It's kind of hard to tell but Madison's hair is starting to grow more. Jen always wants to brush it because its always sticking up.

Baby Einstein

Grammy, the Easter Bunny, bought Madison a Baby Einstein video for Easter. She was enthralled with the video and was talking and smiling at the tv. It didn't take much to satisfy her like watching balls float in water. We couldn't believe how long it actually took to get to the true video. Don't the creators of the video series know that kids don't have a long attention span?!?!?

Anyways, here's a pic of Grammy and Madison watching her Baby Einstein video on Easter Sunday.

Happy Easter!!

Madison got us up bright and early this morning and it wasn't so that she could go on an Easter egg hunt. She was just her usual hungry self. We decided to go ahead and dress her in her Easter Bunny outfit and a take a few pictures before we had to get ready to go to Grammy and Grampy's.

"Talking"

Madison was talking away on Friday, so we pulled out the video camera to capture a little of what she was talking about. Of course, she didn't say as much once we pulled the camera out, but none the less here's a clip of her "talking".

Good Friday

It's Good Friday, and I had the day off. We had originally planned on going to the Oklahoma Aquarium, but we drove by and the line was out the door! I swear it is the busiest it has been since it first opened. I guess with it being a holiday, spring break, and they just opened a new exhibit that people decided to go. So, we just did some errands and came home and watched some basketball. Nothing too exciting. It was a really nice day spent as a family! Tomorrow is going to be busy. I have a hair appointment in the morning, and in the afternoon, Jeff and I have a couples wedding shower to go to. So, Grammy and Grampy are coming to babysit. I think they are over the moon. This will be the first time they have babysat. I think they would be even more excited if she got to spend the night, but first things first!!

Everything's Ducky!!

Today was Madison's follow-up appointment with the doctor regarding her neck. We were a little anxious for the appointment because we did not want her to have to go to physical therapy (we realize there are worst things that could be wrong).

The doctor was impressed with her progress. He asked us how much we thought that she had improved and we said at least 50%. He initially said he thought 40%, but as we talked with him Madison turned her head from side to side while laying on the exam table. He ended up saying that she had improved 70%. He said that our hard work had paid off and that she didn't need PT and to keep up what we are doing. So, we are really relieved. We do think that it has helped that she has been home with me and getting more tummy time and neck stretching since they really don't do it at daycare. What I have found out works best(Jen doesn't like at all)Madison likes to watch tv!! She really holds her head up when she watches tv. We are thinking we need to buy some Baby Einstein videos or something more kids oriented than CNN or whatever is on tv (she did like watching the Nascar race a few weeks ago because of the cars going around the track!)

Madison weighed 12 lbs 10 ounces today at her appointment, so she has gained over a pound in a month.

Tomorrow Madison will officially be 3 months old (it's hard to believe). Here is a picture that we took today in a duck outfit that her grandma (Dianne) bought her for Valentines Day.

Family Pic

My parents were up this weekend, and since Jeff and I BOTH were dressed decent, I wanted them to take a picture of all 3 of us. We don't have any pictures of all of us together. We couldn't get all 3 of us to look good, so I just picked the one that Madison looked the cutest in!

Also, my mom was being goofy with the camera, and she snapped this shot. I think it's really, really cute!

Rain, Rain Go away...

The sky has opened up over Oklahoma today. We have had several inches of rain since last night. We had some pretty nasty thunderstorms (so Jen tells me, I was sound asleep and heard nothing) The storms did wake up Madison earlier than normal. Madison has been sleeping more today and I am guessing that it's because of the rain falling or the fact that she didn't sleep too well thanks to the thunderstorms.

Lake Chandler is back. Here I thought spending a few thousand dollars last summer to have french drains installed since the builder couldn't/wouldn't get the ground properly graded so that we wouldn't have standing water.

Current example of Lake Chandler...


The one who is happiest that it is raining is Nacho. He gets to be in his favorite place, my office...

It's Spring Break!!

Madison is on spring break this week from daycare. Most of the schools around Tulsa are on spring break this week, so that's why daycare closes so that they can have a break.

I am actually watching Madison this week while Jen is at work. This will actually be the first time that I have been with Madison by myself for long periods of time. At first this morning, I was a little overwhelmed with the thought of taking care of her, but then I thought that she is really easy to take care of, so I shouldn't have anything to worry about. I am working too (not a lot going on anyways). I had originally planned to take PTO this week, but my boss was nice enough to allow me to keep the week of time so that I have it for later with the layoff looming.

I really don't know that Madison and I are going to be doing anything too exciting while she is out. I told her that the closest that we may come to a beach this week is Coney Beach (a new hot dog restaurant in town that we haven't tried) :). Jen is actually off for Good Friday, so we may go to the aquarium for Madison's first trip there.

Well, it's almost time for her next feeding (she 's starting to get fussy) so we need to do some neck stretching (her doctor's appt. is this week where we find out if she has to do PT on her neck, crossing fingers that she doesn't!) and tummy time. I will try and post more this week about our activities this week.

The Headband & A Sleepy Saturday Afternoon

I bought Madison several outfits at Gymboree when my Mom stayed with me while Jeff was at the Daytona 500. They all coordinated, and I bought this really cute headband that matched them. Well, the first night after I had bought the outfits, my mom and I tried to put this headband on her, and it created these wrinkles on the back of her head. She looked like a Sharpe puppy. Well, I decided to go ahead and put it on her again. I had it on last weekend, but Jeff wasn't impressed with it. This is why...

I don't know if you can really see, but it leaves an indention in her head!! I don't know why either, because it doesn't feel that tight at all. However, I still think it's really cute on her. We went to Target and Belk this afternoon, and I put it on her. It was really bad by the time we got back!! Needless to say, I won't be putting on this headband very much.

It's kind of a dreary day outside, and Jeff doesn't really feel that great. So, him and Madison got a blanket and have curled up on the couch. I think I might go and join them. However, Annie and JJ have decided to curl up with them now, so I don't think there is any room for me!!

The First Born...

Abby was my baby before I ever met Jeff. Once I met Jeff, she had to learn to share me. It's been rough on her. First she had to share me with Jeff, then we got 2 more cats, then a dog, and now finally a baby. She's become rather pissy over the years, so we've nicknamed her Miss Pissy. Anyway, the other night after Madison had gone to bed, Miss Pissy decided to get in Madison's seat. I guess she thought if she got in it that she would get some attention. We just left her in it. We've really tried to not let the cats on or in most of Madison's stuff. This means that the door to the nursery is closed because if it wasn't, then all 3 cats like to sleep in her crib!! They've had it rough. However, I think Abby has had it the roughest. Poor thing!! I still tell her that she's my first born.

It's coming off...

My weight that is!! I lost another 1.5 pounds this week. I don't know if it is so much the diet or me just not eating. I haven't been eating much this week because I've been so upset about Madison going to daycare. Everytime that I do eat, I feel like I'm going to puke, or I do puke. It's been a rough week. However, what I can keep down has been healthy. So, I have 7 pounds to go in 7 weeks. I think I can do it!!

Do I have a job??

For those of you who haven't heard, I (Jeff) was given a heads up back in January that the American Red Cross was going to be going through major budget cuts thanks to a $200+ million deficit by 2010. Mind you, this information was conveyed to me when Madison was 3 weeks old!! So, that put a damper on things. We have had a few conference calls to discuss what's going to happen, but nothing official at this point. The only for sure thing at this point that I know is that I will find out one way or the other very soon if I still have a job. The board of governors gave the official approval to the budget last week. Once I am notified I will still have my job for an additional 60 days. After the 60 days is up then severance kicks in (1 week of pay for every year of service plus an additional 2 weeks as well as any PTO that I have left over).

It's been very hard and I wish I would know one way or the other because we have put a lot of things on hold. At this point, I am not even sure if I am lucky enough to get to keep my job that I want to stay with the organization. This whole ordeal has put a bad taste in my mouth. I wouldn't leave without another job, but it's something that I have thought of. The organization needs a lot of help being run like a true business. I can't count how many CEO's the organization has had since I have been with the organization (since 1999) Jen and I honestly didn't think that I would ever have to look for a job outside of the Red Cross.

I have been applying for jobs in the area. There aren't a lot of safety jobs in general and when the economy is in the toilet, companies are cutting back and safety can be one place that they look to cut. I actually have had a phone interview and a interview with a manufacturing company in Tulsa last week. It was an interesting experience to interview with strangers becaues it had been so long since I had done interviews with people that I didn't know. I am impatiently waiting to hear back from them. From what Jen and I have heard, the company is a really good company to work for. The job would require traveling, which I am used to. BUT the travel includes international travel!! To the U.K. and possibly China.

The other thing that this has done is to slowly light the fire to finish my masters. As Jen likes to say, you have been in school since I have known you! I have been done with the actual coursework for quite a while. The writing of the thesis/capstone is not going to great. I am actually writing it on the safety of blood as it's being transported because most people don't realize what little is done to protect the blood while it is being shipped. A lot of people also don't realize that blood is put into cargo holds of commercial planes on a daily basis. Besides the fact that a completed masters could help on the resume, I need to get it done before the University of Findlay tells me you have taken too long and you can't graduate! I had a co-worker email me an interesting newsletter a few weeks ago talking about a researcher who is developing radio frequency tracking of blood products. I contacted the researcher yesterday and found out that he is actually doing the work on behalf of a blood bank. So, I am going to contact the blood center to see if I can get some more information from them. I am hoping that this will add fire to the flame to get this stupid thesis done!!

Sorry to put a damper to the blog, but I wanted to let everyone know what was going on with me, which in turn effects Jen and Madison as well.

Hectic...

Well, things around here have been hectic. Madison had a rough first few days at daycare. She did fine that first day, but it seemed to go downhill after that. Basically, she wouldn't eat for them, which she's known to do. For some reason, she's just not interested in food. I swear sometimes she's not our child, because Jeff and I both LOVE food! Also, she wasn't sleeping for them, but I figured that was do to the noise level. She was used to being around just Jeff and me, and it's not like we're that noisy. I talked with one of the girls on Friday, and she suggested that we try faster nipples. So, we got faster nipples this weekend, and she seemed to do better. She's done better this week at daycare. She needs to be eating around 10 ounces at daycare, and yesterday she took 9.5 and today she took 10. She also slept fairly well today. I was a little worried because they have a lot more babies on Tuesday and Thursday. She seems to be adjusting okay. I'm not exactly very happy with her in daycare. I know it is going to be an adjustment, but it is still very hard.

Last week while she was at daycare I decided to pack away all my maternity clothes. They are all WAY too big now, and they were just taking up too much room. Well, Abby and Annie decided to help me. They love it when they can come in our closet.



This weekend we didn't do much. Saturday we went everywhere looking for "medium" nipples. Wal-Mart just had fast and variable nipples. Fast just poured out and variable didn't seem any faster than the slow nipples. We finally found them at Babies R Us. On Sunday, we decided to go to the new Target down the road from our house. It was nice, and we got there early enough that it wasn't crowded. Madison had on her outfit that her Grandma got her for Valentine's day. It's really cute outfit with ducks on it from Gymboree. However, before I could get a picture taken Madison had spit up all over it! So, I put her in an outfit that her Grammy bought her when we went shopping while Jeff was at the Daytona 500. It's from Gap, and it was really cute.



Yesterday at daycare when I went to get Madison, everyone was asking about her baby leg warmers. I had found these things that look like leg warmers online before Madison was born. They are called Baby Legs. You can find them here http://www.babylegs.net/. AND, everyone loved her onesie she had on. Her Grammy got that for her also at Gap. I swear Gap has some of the best clothes. So, I guess Madison is going to become a fashionista now!!

As for what else is going on, I started back to work on Monday. I REALLY didn't want to go back. I still don't really want to be there. Things are going fine, and I swear it's like I never left. The same things are still going on, and everyone is still the same. It's taken me a little bit to get back into a groove, but I feel like I'm slowly getting there. Everyone seemed to have really missed me, especially the geologists. I guess it's good to be missed...job security at least!!

So, that's just a little bit of what is going on around here. Hopefully, I get to post more often.

Daycare Day 2 & Update...

I took Madison to daycare by myself this morning. It was a little easier, but I still didn't like it. She has 2 teachers in her room. One gets there at 7:30 and leaves at 4:30, and the other one gets there at 8:30 and leaves at 5:30. So, last night we only saw one of her teachers. Well, the other one said that she did really, really well too, and that it was like she had been there everyday. It made me feel a lot better.

She slept really good last night. I think we are going to try and put her down earlier tonight. I really think that if she was in bed by 8 or 8:30 that she would sleep through the night. So, I think we are going to start doing her bedtime routine between 7:15 and 7:45. It usually takes her about an hour to go to bed once we start the routine. I just checked her on the internet, and she must be asleep in her crib, because I do not see her.

So this morning, I felt like I had lost weight. So, I decided to weigh myself. Yep, I lost 2.5 pounds!!! I was so excited, especially since I had to go buy pants yesterday, and that was really depressing. Only 8.5 pounds to go until I'm back to my pre-baby weight. Of course, I really want to lose another 5 after that, but I'm trying to just focus on the 8.5 pounds.

Daycare...

Today was the first day of daycare for Madison. Mommy and Daddy were not looking forward to it. We went yesterday and set up her cubby, signed forms, and just met everyone so we didn't have to do that this morning. Everyone seemed really nice, and I knew that she would be in good hands. However, that still didn't ease my mind. I didn't sleep that well last night. I woke up every hour on the hour. Madison was in bed last night by 9:15pm, and she slept until 6:00am. She actually was still kind of asleep at 6am!! So, Daddy fed her, and I got her dressed, and we were out the door at 7:15am.

Here's Miss Madison all ready for her first day of daycare...


We got there a little after 7:30am, and we were the first ones there. I was a wreck, but was determined not to cry. Her Daddy got her out of her carseat, and put her in her crib. We kissed her goodbye, and we left.

Here she is in her crib...

After we dropped her off, we went to Kohl's to see if I could find any clothes. We weren't there very long, and then we came home. Once we got home, I started bawling. It lasted most of the morning. The daycare has internet monitoring, so we got on there, but we couldn't see her. We finally saw her, and I felt a lot better. We watched her getting fed, and we could tell that she took most of her bottle. I was really nervous about someone else feeding her. She's not exactly a chowhound, so I didn't know how she would do. I finally pulled myself together and went shopping for clothes. I did find some pants on sale at JCPenney's, and then came home.

When I got home, I was exhausted, and I had the worst headache ever. I told Jeff that I was going to lay down for awhile. This is how Jeff found me.

I think the cats were really glad to have me all to themselves. They usually have to share me with Madison, which they don't like at all. After I woke up, we went for a walk, and then it was time to go pick Madison up.

When we got there, they said she did really, really good, especially for a first day. I think they were impressed with our little angel. Jeff kept telling me every time we watched her on the internet that it was a good sign that they hadn't had to change her clothes. I'm very proud of myself for not having to call and check on her. If they hadn't had the internet monitoring, I'm sure I would have called every hour!!

I'm very glad that this first day is over with. I hope she does as good tomorrow. I'm sure she will. And, I'm sure this will get easier with time, but right now it's torture! Maybe it will be better next week when I go back to work...ugh!

Weekend Roundup

We went to Bristow this weekend to see my parents and my Grandpa. We were supposed to go last weekend and go out to eat for my Grandpa's birthday, but we decided that the weather might get bad. In the end, it wasn't. So, we went this weekend. My Grandpa ended up not going with us to eat. We went to Drumright, which is a neighboring town, to Joseph's. It is a steakhouse that has a lot of Lebanese food (cabbage rolls, tabouli, etc). Jeff's not that keen on the place, but I love it. I ate way too much. However, I hadn't eaten over there in like a year and a half, so it was worth it.

We went over to my Grandpa's after we got back. We stayed about an hour and a half, and we had a really good visit. He held Madison for like 30 minutes, and then Grammy fed her. Madison has been really smiling at everyone lately. So, Grammy was having a lot of fun talking to her and trying to get her to smile.

Madison doesn't know what to think of Grammy in this picture...

However, she soon thinks that Grammy is rather funny, and gives her a big smile. Of course, I only got the grin.

We didn't do much on Sunday. It was really nice when we got up, so the whole family went on a walk. We even took Nacho. While we were out, the wind really picked up. We ended up having 30 mph gusts all day. When we got back, I fed Madison, and Jeff went to Wal-Mart. I did pilates and started cleaning the house before he got back. After he got back, we just messed around the house the rest of the day. It was a pretty lazy Sunday.

The week ahead is a busy one. We go tomorrow to daycare and fill out the rest of the paperwork and get her cubby in order. Madison will start on Wednesday. I'm not looking forward to it at all. Hopefully, she does okay. I'm sure she will do better than her Mommy.

Weight Loss After Baby

I ran across this picture when I was uploading some other ones. This was taken 2 days before Madison was born. Everyone kept telling me how small I was during my pregnancy. I sure felt like a blimp. Everyone would always ask me how much weight I had gained, and I HATED that question. I mean that's like going up to someone who wasn't pregnant and asking them how much weight they had gained. My standard answer was "a lot." Most people thought I only gained like 25 or 30 pounds, and IF I did tell them that I gained a whole lot more, then they were shocked. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I gained 40 pounds. I've lost 29 of those pounds though. So, I've got 11 pounds to go. I was really hoping to have lost all my weight before going back to work, but since I only have a week left, I don't think I'm going to make it. I've been following Weight Watchers, and trying to do pilates. I've lost about 5 or 6 pounds since I started doing that. I thought I had lost weight this week, but we went out to a steak restaurant on Saturday night. I really over ate, so I think that has something to do with it. So, the real reason I'm writing all of this is to REALLY motivate me to lose that last bit of weight. I really hate that I'm going to have to go buy work clothes this week. I'm only buying the bare minimum of what I need. My goal is to lose the rest of the weight by May. I have 2 weddings to attend the first 2 weekends of May, and I want to be back to my pre-baby weight. Hopefully, I can do it!!