Jillian and......

Hi there! Jillian has been sick for the past few weeks, starting with a double ear infection, then a bad stomach bug with fever, now back to a double ear infection. In the midst of her having the stomach bug, her ears were fine. We took her back to the doctor yesterday because she wasn't drinking or eating hardly anything and the doctor said she has a bad ear infection again. So, we are trying a different antibiotic and hopefully we can avoid tubes as long as it doesn't recur 6 times. Jillian is so great even when she's sick. Even though she has felt lousy she has smiled a few times and then remembers she doesn't feel well. Her stomach bug started Tuesday evening on the drive home. Garrett stayed home with her on Wednesday, then he caught the bug and was home Thursday and Friday. Mary came to visit for the weekend and it was really great having her help. We sure hope she didn't catch it. Amazingly, I have been able to escape it so far.

On a happy, exciting note...... We are expecting a new baby Thorne in February! We had our first appointment July 15. When we arrived the nurse practitioner takes care of the first appointment for expectant families. Garrett of course was with me and the NP told him "good job" and we all laughed. She could not find the heart beat after searching for a few minutes and I was concerned so they give me a quick ultrasound to make sure the baby was ok. The doctor in the office said he had a little time so we took a look and everything looks great. The baby was wiggling and we could see it's little heart fluttering. Amazing! I am excited to hopefully hear the heart at our next appointment next week. We are quite happy that Jillian will be a big sister and hope the two will be good friends (eventually). The official due date is February 11, 2012. I have to say that I'm happy I don't have to carry a large furnace around through the whole summer. We are trying to decide what we need in terms of a car seat and if we want another crib for the new baby or a toddler bed for Jillian, then give the crib to the new baby. We will also need another high chair so we'll be talking about that also. There are some seats that look like a high chair without the legs that sit on a big person chair, but they aren't quite a booster, but convert to a booster when necessary. That seems confusing. We really don't need much. In fact, we haven't even put away Jillian's bouncer or "bubble" chair that she outgrew a few months ago. We are planning to find out the gender and should know at our appointment in September, yet to be scheduled.

Between Garrett reaching a stopping point on the garage fix-up and illness with Jillian and him, we haven't done much of anything else. We were hoping to see Part 2 of Harry Potter over the weekend but that wasn't a good idea for obvious reasons. We'll see it sometime. Our jobs are about the same. Not too busy, not too slow. Our cats and Huntley are all doing well. We try to take walks when the weather isn't smoldering. Neighbor Frank let us go into his garden last Monday and pick green beans and sweet corn. Garrett and Mary blanched and froze the corn and we need to do something with the beans. They were more than ready to be picked so they aren't the best beans but it was very nice of Frank to let us take some. He said he already canned 37 quarts of beans and hadn't mentioned how much corn he'd picked. He sure has a lot of both and more to come that he planted after the first crop. We have some tomato and pepper plants that are producing very well. I need to get out there and work on the garden. With the heat I haven't been out there much and it looks like a jungle. I went out to pick a few cherry tomatoes for my salad a few nights ago and there was something in the tall weeds making noises at me and moving around, but not moving away. I quickly picked the tomatoes and jumped over the knee high fence. I'm guessing it was an opossum but it's hard to know. It sounded like a quick hiss/spit noise. Perhaps a snake?

I don't have my cable with me to hook up my iPhone to the computer to post any photos but I will try to remember to grab it.

Happy August!