New Mexico

I have to admit- I was not too excited about going to New Mexico at first. I mean, only get one week off work, and I was giving it up. But, I have to say, it was fun. And most of the time, it was pretty relaxing.

Ryleigh had her first airplane ride. We anticipated a very busy toddler running up and down the aisles, so naturally, I brought some Benadryl to knock her out. But, the plane ride was during her nap time, and so within 5 minutes of us boarding the plane, she fell asleep on my lap- all on her own. Nice!

Once we arrived in New Mexico, we heard weather reports that they were expecting snow. Sure enough, Saturday morning, we woke up to a white wonderland. We headed to Ruidosa for the day, and spent the afternoon shopping the small town (I bought a LOT of homemade fudge- YUM!) and playing in the snow.

Sunday, we met up with Justin & Jenn's gang and went snow tubing! It was hysterical. Ryleigh definitely got the most bang for her buck, insisting that we go "a-gin?" every time she reached the bottom. Jesse and I took turns hauling her up the small slope. Poor Gina waited in the long lines, got all the way to top, they 'pushed' her down, and ended up flipping her completely over. She was embarrassed and slightly hurt, but kept a good face. The kids all loved it, though I think we were all frozen in the end. We are from Texas, ya know!

Monday, we laid around the hotel for awhile, relaxing. JD and Carol had to go finish up funeral arrangements, so the rest of us thought we would go explore. We had originally tried to go to White Sands, but they were closed. So, we went to the space museum. Carol's Dad was in the space program and actually holds the rights to some technology, so it was cool to see his work. While the gang went to the IMAX, Jesse, Ryleigh, and I enjoyed some family time in the museum.

Tuesday was the funeral. I'll dedicate another post to it.

Wednesday morning, Jesse, Ryleigh, and I came home. It was a nice trip, but we were happy to sleep in our own beds.

More pictures to enjoy!

Headed to New Mexico!

Just a typical travel day in the Shulse family...Ryleigh loves to take the wheel and give her parents a rest.

...not really. But, I thought you would enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was celebrated with family...just a little different than normal.

My parents came over on Monday night to exchange presents with us. I cooked lasagna and bread, nothing special, and we celebrated Christmas together. My mom's present still had not arrived (yeah, I don't think I mentioned that yet-- I messed up everyone's presents this year. Micah and Sarah's Christmas present, Susan's birthday present, Mom's Christmas present, Jeremy and Gina's Christmas present-- ALL late. That's what I get for ordering online and procrastinating getting to the post office!!) so I ended up wrapping my own pampered chef stone to show her what she was getting. Classy, huh? She was a good sport, and we had a good evening. The highlight, of course, was watching Ryleigh with her presents. A new pink piano from "Gaga and Go" (don't ask me how that equates to Grandma and Grandad; I have no idea), a mermaid barbie for the bath, a jack-n-the-box, new clothes, and more! Again, she was not too thrilled to open the presents, but once they were open, she had a blast.

Christmas morning, Jesse and I got up and waited for Ryleigh to wake up. Finally, we woke her up! Then we kept her corralled in the kitchen and bedroom long enough to finish preparing the breakfast casserole and kolaches. We let her loose. And she walked right into the living room, and straight to her new table. She climbed right up in her new chair, and immediately wanted to open her stocking. We side-tracked her long enough to show her a few new toys. She kept going back to play with her pink piano! Ha! Eventually, we all opened our stockings. Ironically, Jesse and I each got one another the same Ray Lamontagne CD-- it was the only one left that we did not own, so I guess we both figured we needed it in our collection. =)

A little later, Jesse's parents came over. We had gotten them small stockings and we gave them our presents: Elfa drawers. Not too exciting, but since they want to re-do their closets, we figured we would help them out with a few drawers (especially since they were on sale!) We opened presents, ate breakfast and Ryleigh played her heart out. Jesse and I got her a potty, thinking we would slowly start to introduce the concept. Well, she sat on it right away! And tried to flush! A little later, she got a present from Aunt Susan that had a baby doll in it, and the first thing she did was sit that baby doll on the potty! Ha! She pushed the baby around in her new stroller and carried it in the baby carrier. Then would go back to the piano. Toys are fun! After awhile, JD and Carol left to head back to their house and begin cooking dinner. We stayed home and NAPPED. For AWHILE.

When we woke up, it was much later than we expected. We hurried and cleaned up and went to his parent's house. Jeremy, Gina, and Eli were already there. I must say: it was quiet. Without Grandma Gertie, Justin, Jenn, & their kids, no family friends, no aunts or uncles-- it was very untraditional Shulse holiday. We exchanged presents and the kids played some more. Carol gave each of us daughter-in-laws a spa day! Massages, facials, manicures, and haircuts/hairdos! A fun girls day at the galleria is on the horizon, for sure. Dinner was good, though everyone again was quiet. After the meal, we stayed for a little bit, but seeing as how we were leaving town for New Mexico the very next morning, everyone was quick to leave.

So, we were home early, and I began laundry and took down the incredibly dead Christmas tree. Jesse and I packed while Ryleigh played, played, played!

It was a different Christmas all around this year. Not bad, just different. I was tired. So, honestly I was thankful for the slower change of pace. I missed a lot of the skipped traditions.

• We never made it to see Santa this year-- I took Ryleigh twice, and both times the line was over 2 hours long...anyone with a toddler knows that there was NO way she was going to sit in her stroller for that long.
• I completely forgot to make cookies and milk for Santa. Completely. Forgot.
• My house was not AS decorated as usual.
• I never made it around to give goodies to all my friends.

But you know what? I survived. I'm no less of a Mom. Or a wife. Or a daughter. Or a sister. Yes, I'm too busy. But I did my best. And it still was a sweet Christmas. And you know what else? My "mess ups" this year did not alter the meaning of my Christmas at all. Because those things are not what this season is about. I still like them- I still hope to do better next year- but I'll be okay if, once again, I cant manage it all.

Alright, alright. Enough of my thoughts. I know you're ready for pictures! Enjoy!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is always a good night. A night to dress up. A night to be with family. A night to go to church and celebrate our Savior's birthday. A night to anticipate. A night to....I could go on and on.

This year, Christmas has been a little different. I have felt more like our own little family this year, which has been good, and weird. So, in keeping with the weirdness, I asked Jesse if we should attend church a day early, allowing more space on Christmas Eve for visitors. He looked at me like I was crazy, and said, "no! It just wouldnt feel like Christmas if we didnt go to church on Christmas Eve." And truthfully, he was right.

So we did. We dressed up in our new clothes from my parents, and kept Ryleigh up a little later than normal to go to church. And since she was with Daddy, she did not mind.
Did you know that Jesse proposed to me on Christmas Eve? Yep. Six years ago, after we left the church service, with both families in tow, he pulled me into the chapel of the church, gave me a bible with my "new" name on it, got down on his knee, and asked me to be his wife.

So Christmas Eve is kind of special to us.

And Ryleigh likes it too.

We got home from church, bathed little miss and put her in her Christmas pajamas. Then I finished wrapping presents and Santa put together Ryleigh's gifts. We were having fun until the instructions got confusing and then Santa was ready for bed. =)

But, by the end of the night, the tree was full of presents, the stockings were stuffed, breakfast was ready to be put together, and the night was at peace.

(Please do not notice how incredibly dead my tree was this year. Apparently, they need water, and I never stopped long enough to water it. My bad.)

The night, as a whole, was quiet. We were not with family. There were not kids running around, excited about Santa. No big celebrations. It was just us. And ya know what? I really enjoyed it.

Fun with flash

Without flash...
With flash...

Who knew a little light could make such a huge difference?

Merry Christmas Melody!

I came home from Dallas, and walked into a different living room!! Seriously! My husband surprised me early with my Christmas present already installed over the fireplace. Our previous tv was okay, but the sound was going in and out, and I had casually mentioned how nice it would be to catch up to the times and get a nice flat screen for the wall. Never did I think he would actually do it! Much less sooooo big!

Merry Christmas to me!!

We are in the process of updating everything to high definition, and still waiting on the longer high-def cables, so we can run the cables behind the wall and remove the old tv armoir from the room all together. I'll update soon!

A Dallas weekend

Ryleigh and I went to Dallas this weekend for our annual Family Christmas. The bonus this year was that it fell on Sarah's birthday too, so we had a double celebration.

We stayed at Micah and Sarah's new apartment, and it was lovely! They have it decorated very nice, and our guest room was quite homey. I slept like a champ. It was nice to spend some time with the two of them, and I only wish Jesse has been there to hang out as well.

Saturday we headed to Aunt Kathy's for Christmas. It was a fun morning, as usual, with the three little girls putting on quite a show for everyone. Ryleigh wanted nothing to do with opening presents, which was kind of a shock to me. I figured she would tear into the packages, regardless of name tag, but I ended up opening all of her presents. Maybe next year! She never took a nap, so she was pretty tired and fussy towards the end of the day.

We headed back to Micah and Sarah's and celebrated Christmas with them at their apartment, since we are all apart on Christmas day this year. It was fun, though Ryleigh was definitely over it by the end of the night.

Sunday was Sarah's birthday. Mom and Dad came back over to have her birthday party that morning, and then we met those who were able, for lunch to celebrate. It was nice to be with her on her birthday-- and I'm sure Susan enjoyed having Julie with her on her birthday as well. One of these days we're going to get them both in the same place for their birthday and it will be great! Can't believe they are already 24...it feels like yesterday we were all playing Barbies in the playroom, then going through the awkward makeup and hair days, riding to high school together, dressing for dances....time has flown. I love all of my sisters and cannot imagine my life without each one of them.

So, I got lazy and just put all the pictures from the weekend into one slideshow. Hope it works for you!

Wordless Wednesday

Bath time is fun time!! Especially when Daddy pours the bubble bath...

I finally updated my blog; sorry for the delay! There has been a lot going on, and still more I want to share with you. One day at a time though. There are several new posts below, so keep reading!

Only in Houston...

...is it 75 degrees one day, and snowing the next!

Ryleigh had fun playing in her first snow...well, first time to experience it outside of the womb. Remember this post? Snow on Easter! We did not stay outside too long, because we did not want to worsen her bronchitis or anything, but it was fun while we were out there!! I have a funny video I will try to remember to upload later.

My poor sick, sick baby!

So Sunday afternoon, Ryleigh developed a bit of a cough. Considering she had an ear infection two weeks ago and had been on antibiotics for ten days, frankly, I was irritated by this. In fact, I was even more irritated by the fact that my observant husband kept asking me if I planned to take her to the doctor Monday morning to check out the cough.

Jesse: "Honey, do you think Ryleigh should see the doctor tomorrow? That cough is pretty bad."
Me: "I took her to the doctor THREE times in November. No, I'm not taking her for a cough."

(Pause)

Jesse: "If you call and schedule it, I will take her to see the doctor. She might need more antibiotics."
Me: (Sigh) "Fine"

Well you cant call and schedule appointments on Sundays, so I figured he would forget and she would be better in the morning anyway. I would set up her humidifier and all would be right in the world.

Yeah, so around 5:00, Ryleigh started coughing. I mean, coughing. Non-stop. For about an hour and a half. I called the doctor, expecting to leave a message or something. Sure enough, they have a 24-hour nurses hotline, so I was able to talk to one of the nurses. A few suggestions later, I felt better, and had a plan to stop the cough. (Honey is a natural cough suppressant- did anyone know that? Oh, and apparently you are not really supposed to use those vaporizer things for babies, like Vicks vapor rub or the stuff for the bath. Go figure.) I also noticed she was starting to feel warm, and with a grimace, agreed that I would go ahead and call the doctor Monday morning just to check.

We calmed the cough, gave Ryleigh her bath and milk, turned on the humidifier, and put her to bed. Jesse stayed up a little bit, but then was ready for bed. For some reason, I just did not feel like going to bed. I was tired, but just didn't want to go to sleep.

Around 9:15, I started hearing a really weird noise from Ryleigh's room. It was something between a grunt and a moan. I muted the TV (I was watching the original Polyanna- a goodie!) and listened some more- she kept making the funny sound. I went to go check on her, and noticed that she was breathing incredibly fast. When I say fast, I mean like her chest was moving like that of a sprinter. Or a dog panting. I picked her up and brought her with me to the couch. I thought perhaps it might be a night where she just needed to sleep sitting up, allowing her to breathe easier. But her breathing never slowed. And she was visibly uncomfortable, shifting every few minutes, trying to find a comfortable position. Around midnight, I decided there was not much more I could do and she clearly was not comfortable sleeping on me, so I put her back in her bed, and headed to my own bed, turning the monitor way up.

About 45 minutes later, I woke up to Jesse bringing Ryleigh in our bed. He said he heard her moaning over the monitor and was freaking out about how fast she was breathing. Also, her fever had totally spiked in the 45 minutes I had put her to bed. So after many deliberations, we decided to see if she would rest easier with us and at least let us wait until the morning to make any decisions.

30 minutes later, Ryleigh woke up screaming. Uncontrollably. And coughing. And the panting continued. By this point, I was panicked. Something was clearly wrong. We debated going to the ER, but we were hesitant. Remember last Christmas when we took Ryleigh to the ER? Yeah, we JUST finished fighting the insurance company and paying off that visit last week. Literally. So, obviously we were hesitant to open a new can of worms.

We got online and tried to do some research to figure out what it could be and if there was anything we could do.

Nothing calmed her down though. So finally, I turned on The Wiggles (at 2:30 in the morning) and settled on the couch with a very uncomfortable, feverish, panting, coughing baby in my lap. Needless to say, we did not get much sleep.

Monday morning finally came, and I was on the phone with the doctor's office at 7 am. We were the first to arrive to the doctor's office, and they sent us straight back. We did not see Ryleigh's normal doctor, but the same doctor who diagnosed her ear infection a few weeks back. Ryleigh immediately starting freaking out when the doctor and nurses started trying to do their exams. Her breathing was out of control (breathing approximately 80 breaths-per-minute with an oxygen level of 97%) and the doctor finally said that we could not do anything more until they gave her a breathing treatment to calm her down and try to get a handle on her ability to breathe.

So, we did the first breathing treatment. After about 15 minutes, the doctor came back in to test Ryleigh's levels again. This time it was about 60 breaths-per-minute, but her oxygen level dropped down to 96%. The doctor asked us to do another breathing treatment. Again, she came back, and tested her levels. Her breaths-per-minute dropped to about 50 breaths-per-minute, but her oxygen level dropped again to 95%. So essentially, she was breathing slower, but her body was not absorbing as much oxygen.

The doctor said she thought that Ryleigh had pneumonia, and was borderline for being admitted to the hospital. I asked what she meant by "borderline," and she said, "if her oxygen level drops below 95%, she is going to the hospital. Period." She told us that there were only two reasons to be admitted to the hospital with pneumonia and the inability to breathe is the main reason. She also told us we would have been completely justified in taking Ryleigh to the ER the night before...geez. Stubborn Mama screwed up.

The doctor ordered a chest x-ray to confirm the pneumonia, and sent us to the other office to get the x-ray taken. Jesse and I had to literally hold her down on the table while she screamed her head off and cried "Da-da!" over and over. Talk about a heart-breaker.

As it turns out, Ryleigh did NOT have pneumonia (whew!) and she did not have to be admitted to the hospital, thank the Lord. We were sent home with a nebulizer, breathing treatments every 4 hours, antibiotics, and steroids. A second trip to the doctor on Tuesday confirmed that her breathing had slowed and her oxygen levels had jumped back up to 99%. Her official diagnosis was bronchitis, but we are supposed to watch her closely to make sure it was not the start of asthma or wheezing episodes.

All in all, it was a very scary experience. A word of advice to all you moms out there: trust your gut. Even at 2 in the morning. Don't let your mind reason your way out of a situation you know feels wrong. If your baby is struggling to breathe for any reason, you get your butt to the ER!!

Here we are, four days later, and Ryleigh is still pretty puny. She wants her teddy bear and Mama all the time. The cough remains and I'm supposed to continue the breathing treatments for the next week.

Never again will I claim that a cough is insignificant. Never again.

Christmastime

It is already mid-December, and I'm having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. For some reason, it just really does not seem like Christmas to me. Normally, I am ready to go by mid-November; ready for Christmas music, lights & decorations, Christmas cards, shopping, and exciting plans for the holiday. I'm dragging my feet this year. I have not put in a Christmas CD yet. I finally put up a tree and few decorations in my house, but have not jumped to put lights outside. I am debating about even sending out Christmas cards. We have made plans for the holiday, but frankly, I'm not very thrilled with them.

Life kind of got in the way of my Christmas spirit this year. But, I am trying really hard to rekindle the spirit, for Ryleigh's sake.

So, we went and got our Christmas tree, and let her "pick it out."
Daddy made it extra fun, playing with Ryleigh amongst the trees and making her giggle all the way.

Mommy stepped out from behind the camera to get a picture with my baby.

Last weekend, we went to my sister-in-law's house. My brother-in-law, Justin, helped Ryleigh dress up like a pirate- I think it ties in well with her cute new reindeer outfit, don't you?

My niece, Mekenzie, was dragged into making chocolate Oreo balls with Jenn and I. What was supposed to be a short lesson in ball-making, turned into a 6 hour ball-making marathon. In the end, I think we made 11 batches-- which is a lot of Oreo balls. Hopefully Jenn will have plenty to give friends for Christmas!

I have been struggling lately, feeling like so often, I go through the motions in life, without finding joy in the actions. Almost like I do things out of obligation to myself, to fulfill some unspoken responsibility to my perfectionism.

This season, I did not want to do that. I have prayed asking God to really shift my focus to Him and remember the real reason for the season. I think maybe He is answering my prayers in giving me an apathy for all the traditional things of our cultural Christmas. I have been a whole lot more internally focused than externally, if that makes sense. I have watched people more. Slowed down while driving, and truly not felt rushed or irritated in traffic. I have talked to and smiled at the people checking me out at the grocery store. I have thanked God for every little part of my life, including the "bad" me, and my appreciation for the gift of His son.

So, I might not get lights on the outside of the house. I might not be silly and goofy, singing Christmas music at the top of my lungs, and "laughing all the way." I might not get my Christmas cards sent on time, or perhaps, at all. I might not give as many gifts, simply because I'm being conservative with our money and not really in the mood to shop anyway. It might not be a picture perfect Christmas. But I hope that at the end of this season, I can say honestly, that I have a fuller and more appreciative view of the true meaning of Christmas. My savior, Jesus Christ.