Deer in the Headlights

I’m not quick on the draw. If this was the wild west, I’d be dead or at least considerably wounded. Apparently, I need to work on that because I have had 2 deer-in-the-headlight situations in the past two days.

Yesterday, I was on the phone with Sallie Mae on student loan stuff-and this guy had such a crazy french accent that I could barely understand him. (Monty Python and the Holy Grail caliber “outrageous french accent”.) But he must have been from the Carribean because it was sooooooo thick. And his voice was really deep. It was rough. Then I had the TOTAL STUPIDITY to actually attempt to say a little something in french. I told him I know a little (emphasizing a little) and then told him I make mistakes. Then he startes rattling some french stuff off to me and I was like WHOA, monsier! Alor! Parlez lentement si vous plait! Speak slowly dude. It was fun to pretend a little. But I had that thing well up in me where I got so annoyed with myself. I can really speak a little french, but I got so nervous that I got dumb American on the guy.

Then today, I had another deer in the headlight situation. I finally emailed that paper about writing. He sent me 2 stories to write due 12/7! I didn’t know what to say. Um…I’m going out of town,….I didn’t think you would want me….um…you have never met me….seen my resume…are you serious?

That’ll show me to have expectations. Crapola.. (that’s my favorite word today)

I need to work on my gun slinging skills. It doesn’t matter if you can talk the talk unless you can walk the walk.

If I had sound effects, a gun slinger one would be here. So insert gunslinger sound in your head. Paa-ching!

The Nevil’s Gear Up

Sorry I haven’t posted much this week! With our quaranteened status, things have been pretty boring around here lately. There hasn’t been much to chat about. But now, this week is winding down and winding up simultaneously! We are working on a countdown to St. Louis here and Jeremy is working on his countdown to Yakima. We are all packing-there are suitcases and ruck sacks all over the house. It looks like Jeremy might be leaving on Sunday instead of Monday for Yakima  – he said he has to go in to work that day. Bummer!

On the upswing, Cooper’s pink eye has significantly improved with the drops the doctor perscribed. (If you believe in government sponsored/global healthcare, I would like to chat with you about why you would HATE it if the US had it. Trust me-it’s AWFUL. Just come and join me for a trip to the doctor here in the Army…government healthcare can’t hold a candle to privatized healthcare-but I’ll save that rant for another day.) The doc confirmed that it sounds like Cooper had a light touch of Croup (he says it’s really going around out here) and the pink eye was pretty obvious too. But the cough seems to be loosening up.

Cooper is a major champ about us giving him the eye drops. The first time I was going to do it, I told him, “You know how daddy puts drops in his eyes?” he said, “yeah,” “well, mommy has this medicine to make your eyes all better – so we are going to put drops in your eyes too, ok?” “like daddy?” he asked, “yup like daddy”. I put the drops in his eyes and he GIGGLED! Then he asked for more. What a kiddo!

Today we are finishing up laundry and packing, tomorrow we run errands for our trip and daddy’s trip and then Saturday we leave! AH! I’m excited and in that major mommy mode where I’m afraid I’ll forget something or I’ll forget to do something important around here before I leave.

I don’t think I’ll post again before I get to St. Louis-what else is there to say?- so here are some things we would covet your prayers on- for Jeremy and for me and Coop:

-Jeremy will most likely be leaving for Yakima on Sunday. It’s cold in the mountains and a rather desolate place since they blow stuff up out there all the time. The wind doesn’t have anything hindering it if you can imagine. He will be outside-in the snow- for 9 days straight. The weather today said there’s over a foot of snow out there. There will be no showers. No warm bed. I gripe because he won’t-too much of a big tough army guy. I don’t like that he’ll be toughing this stuff out. I think it’s too extreme and stupid. Pray for safety-no cold weather injuries etc. Pray for protection – they will be using some live fire exercises. And pray for encouragement for Jeremy. Just that he can get his mind off being uncomfortable and try to have fun shooting stuff and learning important and life saving lessons.

-for me and Mr. C. Pray for patience on my part and wisdom in how I entertain Coop. Pray for Cooper -that he might sleep on the plane and that he will be so excited to see everyone that he will have his halo on quite nicely.

-finally….pray that Mizzou kicks the Sooners’ booties-I hope I can catch the game on Saturday to watch the big win-GO TIGERS!

Quaranteened…

Cooper is crazy sick. I can only do my mommy assessment for so long-we finally have a doc appointment today after this long holiday weekend. I think it all started the week of Thanksgiving. I noticed a little cough on Monday and didn’t think much of it. But by Tuesday night it was worse and then really full blown on Wednesday-I was worried. It was the most intense at night – he’d have these coughing spasms where it was like he couldn’t breathe. I got out my handy-dandy pediatricians manual (from my most favorite pediatrician in St. Louis who I miss like the dickens!), and checked out my ideas – I decided it sounded like croup. But the book says there isn’t anything you can do about it in terms of curing it-no medicines or anything. Just humidifiers and liquids. So after a couple of really scary nights he does seem to be doing better. Until there was Friday….

On Friday, Cooper developed full blown pink eye. His eye has been leaking a green mucas…I know – it’s so gross! And of course, doctors don’t work on the weekends – especially holiday weekends. So I called the doc yesterday morning and got an appointment for today. Good thing because it’s spread to his other eye. Yesterday morning (and Saturday and Sunday morning ) he woke up looking like a pirate…his one eye was pasted shut with all kinds of dried mucas. YUCK! Arrrgggghhh me maties…

Then this morning, Cooper had BOTH eyes pasted shut. At 5 am, I heard him crying and bumping into the walls in his room. I went in and he was standing in the corner (behind the door), clutching blankie with his arms out trying to find the door to come into our room. He was a little freaked out over the fact that he couldn’t see. Jeremy had the glorious job of wiping the 1/4 inch thick crusties off his eyes this morning so he could open them! UGH!

So doctor today at 2:30pm. Thank God. Jer and I are so afraid we are going to get it next. Wouldn’t that just be perfect? We have family pics at the end of the month…hope it comes and goes long before then!

Remind Me on the Bad Days….

Cooper has been a real delight lately. In fact, he’s down right cracking us up. So far this age is pretty fun – even with the temper tantrum’s and all other aforementioned issues and embarrassments. Here are a couple of our favorite incidences from this past week:

-I usually get about 4 or 5 books off his shelves to read for a week and we rotate around them each night before bed. We switch them out every so often. I think we usually read 2 or 3 before bed. This past week we’ve been reading “My Crayons Talk” by Patricia Hubbard. It’s a tongue twister book that goes through colors and it’s got pretty catchy short rhymes. “Talk, talk, my crayons talk. Yack, yack, yackitty, chit chat clackity, yackity clackity talk, talk, talk.” Anway, Cooper has been asking for that book and some others by name. He says, “Talk, talk, Crayons, talk” and when we get to a couple pages he can tell us what the rhyme is! He’s remembering them! One of the other books is called “On the Night You Were Born” and it’s a real tear jerker all based on Psalm 139. He knows that one too!

-Cooper loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Every episode, to make the clubhouse appear you have to say the magic words – Meeska, Mouska, Mickey Mouse – Cooper says them!

-Cooper has been praying for his food by himself. He asks to pray and scolds me when I forget. His prayers go something like this “Jesus, thank you my food and my friends, amen.”

-Last night Cooper prayed before bed by himself. He prayed “Jesus, thank you my friends, and, and, and, for, for, foooooorrrrrr, Nick, Amy, Andrew-amen.”

-Cooper is into hiding – but he’s not very good at it yet. He covers his head with his blanket and walks around with his hands out saying “Where’s me go?” Then he pulls his blanket off and says “There’s me!” He also plays this game with his plate at dinner – which is less funny when something is on his plate. Though funny when he says, “Where’s my fork go?” b/c it’s hidden by the food on his fork….

-Cooper has been having some coughing attacks. He’ll get a really bad one and I get worried you know – because he can’t BREATHE! But he always reassures me when he’s done by saying “I al-wight.” In fact, he’s so used to telling me that he’s alright after one of these attacks that at night when I hear him coughing in the monitor, I also hear him announcing, “I al-wight” when he’s done.

-He likes to walk around talking to us with his tongue out. He tries to have entire conversations while his tongue is sticking out as far as possible.

I think that’s about it for this week’s funnies. He is excited about “fly big air-pane, St. Woo-is” this next Saturday. He has pink eye right now – so we are experiencing a little cabin fever this weekend. Poor kiddo!