I'M A BRIDESMAID

I am so excited!

Mellisa (Humble) Newsome is getting married next May and has me to be one of the bridesmaids. I love Mellisa to death and her wedding is going to be so much fun.

I was a bridesmaid one time before and that was a lot of fun too. I, the bestman, and I think all the groomsmen were half-tuned before the service even started. In fact, I am sure we all were, we were drinking beer outside of the church between pictures.

Now I need to start really getting serious on loosing some weight. I have a lot of it to loose by May.

BUSY

Last evening we met Darren's folks in Rugby to eat. We wanted to stay with them a little longer than we did but the time change really has Jessie off schedule and Cassidy was having a problem listening. I am surprised because Cassie's "selective hearing" hasn't been too bad lately.

Today I have been busy getting papers together for Benson County Social Service. I was supposed to have my meeting with them at 10:30 this morning. I had to call and reschedule it because I didn't get the notification until Friday by mail telling me about all the crap I had to bring with. At that time it was too late to call everyone I needed to call and get the information they requested.

Darren dug out the fax machine (which my father GAVE me...Thanks dad :D ) and hooked it up. My dad and I sent a couple of faxes back and forth to make sure that I had it working correctly before people started sending faxes to me. This has helped me out a bunch. Now I don't have to wait for things to arrive by mail and I can just fax stuff right over to BCSS. If we qualify for the programs we will have to send them stuff weekly. This really cuts down on mailing.

It's really shitty outside right now. Snow is flying like you wouldn't believe. I hope tomorrow isn't like this. I am really looking forward to taking the girls out trick-or-treating. Thank God I made sure that the Halloween costumes I bought were warm ones this year. We were supposed to move the building for our barn today but that definitely is not going to happen. Hopefully we will have another shot at moving it before the snow stays for good.

FOR TANYA MARCH 1981- OCT 2005

Sang by Linda Ronstadt
Written by Karla Bonoff
Copy; 1988 Seagrape Music (BMI)

Oh we never know where life will take us
I know it's just a ride on the wheel
And we never know when death will shake us
And we wonder how it will feelSo goodbye my friend

I know I'll never see you again
But the time together through all the years
Will take away these tears
It's okay now
Goodbye my friend

I've seen a lot things that make me crazy
And I guess I held on to you
We could've run away and left well maybe
But it wasn't time and we both knew

So goodbye my friendI know
I'll never see you again
But the love you gave me through all the years
Will take away these tears
I'm okay now
Goodbye my friend

Life's so fragile and love's so pure
We can't hold on but we try
We watch how quickly it disappears
And we never know why

But I'm okay now
Goodbye my friend
You can go now
Goodbye my friend

I CAN'T THINK OF A TITLE

Ahhh.

Darren went to Rugby today to get his hair cut and to pick up some things. Cassie wanted to go shopping with her dad so Darren took her with. That leaves just Jessie and I at home. Jessie laid down for her nap right after dad and Cassie left so I am enjoying the little time of peace that I have. I have finished up a test and a couple of assignments so now it's my time and it feels wonderful.

Yesterday my dad, the girls, and I went out to the old Broden farm. Mr Broden called and wanted to know if we were still looking for a building for the horses because he had one. Mr Broden was out there when we got there and helped him take a few big things out of the building so that we can go out and move it on Monday.

One the way back home, we stopped by the cemetery. I wanted to stop by Tanya's grave while we were out that way. We were not there long at all when Tanya's mother came out with some flowers. Tomorrow marks the 1 year anniversary of Tanya's death. It was a super sad moment.

This weekend we are going to work on cleaning up the yard. We are borrowing my dads dump truck and we are going to fill it up with everything that we can so it can all be taken to the dump ground. I also have an appointment with Benson County Social Services to receive some help here at home.

I HOPE THEY DON'T VISIT AGAIN ANY TIME SOON

Today I have put aside my college work to clean up the house and straighten things out before Darren gets home. The day before yesterday, a friend came out to the house with her three boys.

She is recently divorced from her husband and I feel bad for her. Darren and I like her a lot but her boys have terrible behavior problems. I think that the oldest has ADHD. The boys literally destroyed my house in three hours. All the did was yell and run from one end of the house to the other and didn't even listen to me when I told them not to, all the play-doh that Cassie got for her birthday they mashed into one big ball AFTER I had told them not to mix the colors together, they trashed the toy room, there is a cute white shelf in the toy room that my sister gave me when Cassie born and they thrown crap around so hard they knocked it off the wall, they kept going into Cassie room to jump on her bed, they were mean to Cassie, and even broke some of her toys. It was awful.

What blows my mind is that she always talks about her other friends not wanting the boys over at their homes because they make a mess and she thinks that they just don't understand how it is to have kids. Well, I am sorry, I have kids and mine don't act like that. I would NEVER let them act like that in someone's home. Kids do make a mess and they can get a little loud, but nothing like what happened at my house. There several opportunities for some really great parenting and discipline but she didn't do ANYTHING about it.

As they were getting ready to leave the house, I saw the oldest boy drop something. I thought it came out of his jacket pocket. I let my friend know and when she picked it up, she said that it didn't belong to any of her boys. She told her eldest son that if it was Cassie's he had to give it back because it hurts peoples feeling so take toys from them. The boy insisted that it was his and walked out the door. A few moments later he came back inside and gave Cassie her toy back. After cleaning up the toy room I am missing the crib cross that April and Kevin gave Cassie at her baptism that I had blessed by the priest so I need to call my friend just in case she finds it floating around her house.

THINGS

Kudos go out to Mr. Toast. Not only was he able to answer both questions that I previously posted, he was actually able to find the correct spelling of Otopalatodigial syndrome. This truly proves that you CAN ask Mr. Toast anything. THANK YOU MR. TOAST!

The girls are both sick. They have been sick for almost two weeks. It started with Cassie and she caught a cough the day after her birth day. Then Cassie's nose started to run, then Jessie started to get sick. On Monday, Darren and I took the girls into DL to be seen at the clinic and they are both on medication right now.

Yesterday I went to my mom's place. She was having problems with her computer that I was able to fix and I also got a lot of my homework done. Her Schwan rep showed up while we were there so my mom bought a BUNCH of ice cream. She even got their holiday Halloween pail that is filled with 24 sundae cups so that Cassie could have the bucket when she goes trick-or-treating.

Speaking of Halloween, I have costumes for the girls. They are not expensive by far. I bought a pony costume for Jessie and my mother bought Cassie a fairy outfit complete with wings, tiera, and wand. That way they girls have WARM outfits for Halloween this year.

Darren really enjoyed hauling beets in Drayton. He liked it so much that he is actually looking at driving truck himself. The farmer he was hauling for really got along with Darren well too. Darren was asked if he could come back up this weekend to haul a little bit and the farmer secured a place for Darren next year as well.

I am not too sure how I am going to spend the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays this year. I thought I knew, but now I'm not. Things have happend so plans are in transition. I am still thinking of spending all of Thanksgiving at my parents because my sister is coming home for Thanksgiving. My parents and brother will be going to Minneapolis for Christmas because my sister will not be able to come home. Therefore, my family isn't going to be around on Christmas and I don't know what to do about it. I would like to go with them, but there isn't a vehicle big enough to take the three of them and then the girls and I. Darren, for some reason, doesn't like going there so I doubt he would come along. I am thinking of maybe just having our own little family Christmas and try the whole turkey, dressing, and pie thing. I did it for Thanksgiving last year so I don't think Christmas would be too much harder. We wouldn't need a big turkey either since Jessie doesn't eat meat yet and Cassie doesn't eat much at all.

NO TITLE

I took my test and I think that it went pretty well. I knew most of it but there were some parts that I had to just guess. I am sure it's going to be a pretty good grade though.

I also brought home a take-home test. We have to have it done in 4 days after bringing it home. Who really needs 4 days to take a take home test? If you can't finish a test and you have your book wide open in front of you, a CD Rom, and internet access.........you're stupid.

IT'S AUTO PALLET DIGIT SYNDROME

I have this cousin, well actually she is really my mothers cousin, and she had a baby a little over three years ago. Nobody was really sure what was wrong with the baby other than that there WAS something wrong with her at the time of her birth and that she was going to be very disabled.

The baby had a long, thin slender head with a very small chin. Her hands and feet were curled in towards each other, and her arms were so stiff that the nurses at the hospital could barely get them pulled away from her chest to clean and wrap the baby up.

As the baby started getting older she still had failure to thrive. They had a feeding tube put directly into her stomach and that didn't even help the baby gain any weight. They really struggled with this poor little child for some time.

They had several medical test done to try and find out what was wrong with the baby. Chromosome and other tests came back fine but they still didn't know what caused this problem with the child.

Recently, for some reason, my moms cousin took her daughter to a doctor in Bismarck. He is a foreign doctor and after seeing the child, some light went off in his head and he realized that he had seen one other case like this before when he was in Africa.

It turns out that the baby has Auto Pallet Digital Syndrome. There is only 50 children in the WORLD that have this syndrome and are alive today. What understand is that most of these babies die very young, within the first 5 months, because of the failure to thrive. It's amazing that her child has lived to be three.

The doctor is going to the baby on injection medications that will help her. They will not cure the condition but it should stop if from getting much worse too quickly. I have tried to Google the syndrome but can't find it anywhere. Because this is an extremely rare syndrome we don't really know much about how long the baby will actually live and if the injections will guarantee a much longer life.

I know that most of you out there in my blogging community know the cousin and baby that I am speaking of. Some have even recently asked how the baby is going. I thought I would pass the word along.

UPDATE ON DARREN'S COUSIN

Darrens cousins husband, Brent, from Texas called to catch us up on how his son, Jack, is doing with his treatment for leukemia.

Jack has been in the hospital for a week and a half. Fortunately he has the best type of leukemia for a child to get because there is an 85% recovery rate. Right now Jack is responding to chemotherapy and the doctors do not think Jack will have to have a marrow transplant. The most current tests show that the chemo is working because there has been no more growths and looks like some may even be getting smaller already.

Kendra, Brents wife, has had her parents with her down in Texas for about a week now. They are going to be staying until Jack comes home from the hospital which they are all hoping will be next weekend. Jack will have to continue chemo for two and a half years after he is out of the hospital. They are going to have to be careful of what Jack comes into contact with because his immune system will be jeopardized. Because of this, Kendra's parents are going to bring her youngest son back to North Dakota with them to stay for a while until things at home get settled and they know how Jack is going to do.

Brent talked for a while about a bunch of things and how everyone was handling everything. We must have been on the phone for at least an hour or more. It makes me happy to know that their boy may be coming home from the hospital soon.

ASK MR TOAST ANYTHING

A while back, Mr Toast told us all to ask him anything and he would scour all the sources available to him to answer our questions.

I have two.

1.) How can I put any kind of music and/or song on my blog. I am talking about everything from AC/DC to Classical, Holly Dunn to Opera. Is is possible not to do it through Video Code Zone?

2.) Can you find anything on Auto Pallet Digit Syndrome? I have tried but can not even find it.

SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH MY KNEE

While walking the Strip the last night in Vegas I did something to my knee. I was just walking along and all of a sudden it started to burn. I ignored it thinking that my body just wasn't used to so much activity, but it has gotten worse. The pain is to the outside of the knee cap and travels along the side and then down to the bottom of my knee. It hurt when I sit or stand. When I am laying down it's fine. When I am kneeling on the floor it burns so bad it feels like I am kneeling in hot ash and I have to be careful how I move.

I don't notice a great amount of swelling so I don't know if it's anything to get too concerned about. I may just wait and see what happens. Maybe I just pulled something and it will go away on its own.

I also have to send a CONGRATULATIONS out to my friend Tom and his wife on the birth of their new little baby boy named Ryan David. The baby is such a cutie!!

SICK KIDS, MONEY WOES, AND A DEAD PITCHER

The girls are both sick. It started out with just Cassie. She has had a cough, a higher than normal temperature, and slightly running nose the last couple of days. Jessie now has a temp too and a cough. I have been giving them both tylenol and motrin to help keep the fevers down. Tonight before bed their temps were pretty normal. I may make a doctor appointment and have them both checked anyway. I think Cassie may have a sore throat because her voice is starting to sound funny and I think they are going to need antibiotics before this all gets worse than it is. I am going in to Devils Lake on Friday anyway to take a test so I can schedule the doctor appointment around the same time and then my mom and meet me at the clinic and take them home when the doctor appointment is done.

I had a WIC appointment today. I let the WIC woman know that Jessie is on formula now so WIC is covering that for us which is nice. I get 11 cans a month. I picked the 11 cans up right away before coming home and it cost WIC $185. That is about $17 per one 12 oz can. Thank God I'm not buying it.

I got my mail out of the mailbox when I got back from the WIC appointment. There was a letter from Altru Health System saying that we owed them $3,100. I called them and they said Medicaid paid the bill at the beginning of the year (when Jessie was born) but for some reason Medicaid took the money back. I gave the woman on the phone our current insurance number and she was going to run it through the system again. In the mean time, I called Benson County Social Services and let them know about the letter I got. Apparently BCSS got our insurance information screwed up. We used to have Blue Cross/Blue Shield of ND but when Darren switched jobs the insurance was switched as well over to Blue Cross/Blue Shield of MN. Some moron in the BCSS office changed the policy and identification numbers but didn't switch the state that the Blue Cross/Blue Shield was out of. So they didn't think we had a 3rd party insurance and paid all our bills. Then they found out that we did have insurance so they took all their money back but when the health systems tried to resubmit the claims nothing was going through because of the incorrect information. It was a huge mess and it took a lot of time to straighten up. It should be correct now....at least I am hoping so. I swear I spent have the day on the phone trying to clear that mess up.

My condolences go out to KSoFM tonight. A little while ago I heard on the news that the New York Yankees pitcher, Cory Lidle, died when the plane he was flying flew into a Manhattan apartment building. Being the super, gigantic Yankees fan he is, I am sure KSoFM is grieving. I bet this puts the playoffs in a whole different perspective for the team as well.

IT'S HERE

Well it is finally here. I have been watching the white little flakes of snow fall now for about 20 minutes or better. It isn't collecting and it is melting as soon as it hits the ground making everything pretty wet. The temperature tonight is supposed to get down to about 27 degrees so people are going to need to be cautious traveling around here tonight because everything will be every icy. It doesn't sound like it will get much better either. We are supposed to get snow all day tomorrow. I am hoping that it will end tomorrow evening and then we won't have snow for a while.

TAKING A BREAK

Yesterday during Jessie's nap Cassidy and I went outside and picked up the yard. The weather was forecasting snow for the middle of the week and I decided that I had better get outside and clean up all the toys and other miscellaneous stuff. I was able to get all the outdoor toys inside one shed and I only put Darren's grill and his smoker inside the garage, anything else he is going to have to put away because I don't know what he wants inside or what it can stay outside.

Today it turning out to be a really shitty day. I have an assignment that I have to redo for my Fund of MT class, it's only about 37 degrees outside, and it is raining. It has been raining for a little while and I am sure we are going to get snow sometime later this afternoon and/or during the night. I can't believe how COLD it has gotten.

My Human Anatomy & Physiology is going great. I only have 3 more tests to take and I am done with the class. I have a test to take this week on Friday, then the next test is a take home test so I will pick that one up at the same time, and then it's my final and I am done. I wish MT was this easy.

I have found more baby clothes to give to April. It would easily fit into another diaper box. I have given them some clothes already along with some cloth diapers to use for spit rags and a baby bath tub. I just wish there was more I could give them. I have suddenly become overwhelmed with all the clothes that neither girls can use. I have to get rid of them.

I have been using Darren's laptop computer a lot lately. It is easier to do my homework because I bought a wireless internet card for it. Now I save my work on it and then go over to my parents and use their wireless network while my mom watches the girls. Also, I can use this in the room that the girls are in whether we are in the living room, toy room, ect. So because of this I don't check my email all that often. I checked my email today and I had received an email from Darren's mother informing us that his cousin's son, that is only 3 months different in age than Cassie, has leukemia.

I am done rambling now. I just had to do something and take a break from my MT class now it is time to get back to gastroenterology.

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY CASSIDY LYNN

Today is Cassie's 3rd birthday. I can not believe that she is this old already.

We had a small party at Nana and Grandpa's house. Auntie Lynnette came all the way from St. Paul MN, our friends Tonya Deuscherer, Alyssa Mattern, and Hailey Solem from Rugby came as well.

Cassie got some really nice, warm fall/winter clothing. She got a nurses kit, playdough, and a Barbie for toys. It was a small but nice little party. We are going to have another one when Cassie's daddy comes back from Drayton when he is finished hauling beets.

Nana and Auntie Lynnette made a really cool homemade cake for Cassie's birthday. Cassie even got to help decorate it.

The gift that Cassie loved the best (and the one that she really wanted) was the gift from Auntie Lynnette. It's Barbie and her pooping dog Tanner. Just wait until dad gets home and sees this.

Cassie getting a closer look at her brand new nurses kit.

Cassie holding her bucket of "Birthday Playdough" high up in the air. She got the playdough as a gift from some friends of ours in Rugby.

This is such a neat cake. Nana and Auntie 'Nette made it for Cassie. If you are guessing as what it is, it's a chocolate butterfly cake with buttercream frosting topped with sprinkles and rainbow twizzlers. The butterfly has M&M eyes and black licorice antenna's.

The birthday girl blew out all three of her candles with just breath!!

Cassie liked feeding Tanner but she needed help when she did it. You have to hold the dog done while you lift his tail. Cassie is working on holding down/lifting up to get the dog to poop by herself.

Auntie 'Nette even showed Cassie how to pick up after Tanner. I think Auntie was more proficent at it than Cassie. All Cassie cared about was watching the dog poop.

Here is Cassie playing with the 13 piece nurses kit that she got from Uncle Mike. She went up to everyone and made sure that they took their medicine. It was cute.

Cassie playing with the new "Birthday Playdough" that she got from our friends; Tonya, Alyssa, and baby Hailey.

Even Jessie enjoyed the birthday party for Cassidy; however, she wasn't allowed to have any cake.

PICTURES FROM OUR VEGAS TRIP

Sorry about the wait. HELLO was being a pain in the ass and wouldn't allow me to post pictures so I had to do it right through Blogger which took forever. These are just a few of the near 200 pictures that I took in 2 days. Enjoy!

The very first picture of our trip that I took was Darren on the plan in Fargo with his "motion discomfort" bag.

Above Las Vegas getting ready to land.

A cheap view of Las Vegas taken from the motor coach from the airport that took us to our hotel.

Here is just part of the New York New York hotel. This place was huge. When you look at it from outside, it is the New York skyline. On the inside, it looks like old New York with cobble stone streets with food shops and stores all over the place. We were pretty much sleeping above a huge shopping mall.

This stream ran through the main floor of the hotel. The stream was full of coins, dollar bills, pop bottles, and even glass drinking glasses.

Here is the big white bridge that went over the stream flowing through the hotel. If you wanted to get anywhere past the front desk, you had to go across it. We walked over that bridge many times.

There is the MGM Grand. It was right across the Strip from our hotel. The two hotels were connected by a walkway that ran over the strip.

The Excalabur was right across the street from our hotel. There was even a walkway about the street running between the two so it wa easy to get to.

The Excalabur at night...obviously.

Entrance to the Monte Carlo. Darren and I went inside and spent a few bucks. I lost all my money but Darren walked out $25 ahead.

The Bellagio. This is a really HUGE place. The light in front of the Bellagio are actually street lamps so it puts some perspective on how big this plae actually is.

Darren and I in front of the Bellagio after the water show.

The water show is in front of the Bellagio. Where we were standing, we got good views of the water coming up in front of Ceasers Palace....just in case you were wondering what the building in the background is.

The show was really cool.

Here is the Mirage. In front of the Mirage was a volcano that would erupt periodically. We never got a picture of the volcano though because the only time we saw it erupt was when we were at the Venetian watching the gondolas.

Here is Treasure Island. This is as far down the stip that we walked. It was 1.5 miles from the New York New York Hotel and Casino.

There was this pirate show in front of the Treasure Island called Sirens of TI. It was good, but looked like a vamped up Pussycat Dolls performace. They say about 6 years ago it was more of a real pirate show. All-in-all it was still pretty good.

There was a lot of pyrotechnics and fireworks during the show. It was pretty impressive for being a free show.

It's really tough to see, but it's the entire cast from the show lined up along the front of the boat.

Finally, the real destination of our whole trip. Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

As soon as we got there, the guys were suited up and got together in a big room for a brief meeting with all the driving instructors before heading down to the track.

The guys had a quick 15 minute video and some simple instrutions from the instructors before going down to pit road to check out the cars.

Once we got down to pit road, the guys were split into two groups. Each group surrounded a car and the instructors went over the NARCARs funtions and operations.

Here are just a few of the cars, out of about a dozen, that were at the track. And yes, these are the ACTUAL cars that are driven in the races. The are normally the number 2 or 3 back-up cars. These particular cars recently came back from a race somewhere. They said the name of the race but I can't remember.

I have no clue at all who drives this car. I wish I could pretend to be smart about it but I can't. I have seen the car on T.V. though.

I feel stupid because I know who drives this car. I can picture the guy but I can't get his name out. My brother and father will probably be disappointed because the drivers name doesn't come right out.

I am a Gordon fan so I don't know why I was compelled to go over to the #8 car and touch it. Maybe because little Dale actually touched it himself. It was funny because the other gals took pictures and stuff but nobody touched the cars until after I had someone take this picture for me. Then every woman had to go over and press their butts to the car as well.

As we waited to find out which car Darren would be driving, I told him that it would be cool if he got the #24 car. Darrens reply was "Skrew that. I want the #8." Well, guess what....Darren did end up with Jeff Gordon's car.

An excited (and nervous) husband as he waits his turn.

Darren walking out to his race car.

Darren climbing into the Jeff Gordon Dupont #24 car.

There goes Darren flying by pit road at a very fast 110 mph. He is driving the car all by himself with no radio control. It's hard to see, but you try taking a digital picture of something that fast that will only go by 8 times.

This is a shoddy picture of the Luxor (the pyramid) and the Mandalay Bay. The reason the picture is so crappy is because I took this picture on the charter bus coming back from the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

This is from the "everything M&M world." Upstairs the back wall of the building was lined with every color of M&M that anyone could possibly want. It was just ridiculous. You would buy them for $9 per pound, because of teh price, we skipped on it.

More "every color you can image" M&M's.

Yeah...we are definately a couple of freakin' tourists. This bear was in the "everything coca-cola world." Anything you could imagine or want was in this place. Darren also had me take his picture with the bear too.

This one speaks for its self. I don't know why, but we didn't go into Harrah's.

This is the Las Vegas Effile Tower. Our last night in Las Vegas, Darren and I sat at the base of the tower for an hour and shared a drink while we watched the Bellagio water show across the street. It was very relaxing.

Here is the famous Flamingo; however, you can't really tell by looking at it. This was the best shot of it that I had. I almost didn't take a picture of it.

This is the Harley Davidson Cafe. We didn't eat there, we just stopped in to check out their little clothing store that they had. It was a neat place.