it's sooo good to be home!

what a ride! what a trip! wonderful and beautiful but i gotta tell ya... i miss it here in kansas! yes, there are good and bad things everywhere but i thought that i had found my piece of paradise! why do we have to leave? perhaps as kim said, we were brought to hays to bring us together as a family and to therefore adopt Mei Mei but now we move on to the next step in our lives. perhaps. but what of our relationship with the glovers? with brendan and january? i thought that our daughters and sons would grow up together and we would all benefit from it! we would learn spanish and mandarin chinese! what now? time will tell and i know that all will be well but nevertheless... a sense of melancholy creeps up on me and yet a sense of excitement and elation are there too! new careers! new adventures! beautiful surroundings! tons of things to see and do! lots of good schools and churches everywhere! The Green Bay Packers! what fun! yes, i do believe that we will be fine and perhaps this has all been preordained in the grand scheme of things but we will still miss you here in hays. my cath lab coworkers were awesome and taught me a lot! thanks gang. even Grumpy taught me a thing or two! what else? there is so much to say! i need to unpack and settle in though! this will be a very busy weekend! i'm gonna win the spectacular summer sweepstakes! sunday is Joy's party! there is a lot of packing and unpacking to do here at home! I need to give my pointer away to a good home too. she is two and points naturally. loves to be with her people! such a good dog... a little spoiled and neurotic by spending time with Kimber but she found a new home too. know of anyone that wants a free pointer? let me know.

Mei Mei goes to town

Kim has been out most of the day driving her horses, mainly with her dad. The third time back to the house though, she picked up her mother and of course, Mei Mei got to go! Does she look upset? Nope! She loves this kind of activity! Definitely an outdoor kind of gal! What fun! Mei Mei is growing up fast! Now she is whipping her head side to side in some funny way. Perhaps brother is teaching her? She is throwing tantrums, which are hilarious. now when i change her diaper, she wiggles her hips side to side for a little while. freedom! she isn't sleeping the same anymore. the first few hours she gets up and fusses for awhile i don't know why. i breaks my heart when i hear her cry and she is truly upset. you can tell when her 'cry' is just for attention or out of boredom but when she is hurting deep down, her cry kills me. she is incosolable for awhile and daddy can't fix it. i love this girl so much! Dallas just came in from the McCracken pool... all wet. thanx Dallas! he comes in sounding like a horse! what the heck is that? then he bounds straight into the shower. crazy kid! he cleaned his room really well this morning before heading out to the pool too! he is very, no, extremely excited to start school this week! jeez! good for him. new shoes, new clothes and new friends. oh too be 12 again... nah.

Back from Japan!

So Kim's sister and family have finally made it! Yes, they've been in the U.S. for a few days now but I haven't seen them! They've been in Japan for the last 4 years! One of the children was even born there! They sure look the same though! Whew!
What a good looking bunch! I'm glad that they are back though, there should be plenty of good stories and pictures to share! I'll upload the few that I took tonight to Flickr. Pretty interesting. The children all got along just grand too! Excellent! Baby Brent even let me spoon feed him some squash! He has very good manners! Every few bites, he would wipe his mouth on my shirt or pants! Mmmmm! What fun! Pandemonium reigned supreme for a few minutes as they all got to playing and frolicking with the cats and dogs too. Yikes. My asthma is firmly in check though. We had a wonderful dinner and headed back outside for another gorgeous Kansas sunset. No coyotes howling though! Or turkey! After the rain this afternoon, I would've swore that all manner of wildlife would be seen and heard! Perhaps the whoops, yells and screams from the native children scared of the local wildlife... My belly is full. We are all happy. Life is good.

is it wednesday?

thunderin cakes... tantrum cakes... mei mei cracks me up! kim is working her butt off and i am the homemaker now. what fun! little catarina seems to come up with new things on a weekly basis! how does she do it? oh yes, she's a sponge! but who does these tantrum things? you should see her fall to the ground and thrash around! or now when i change her diaper, she'll shake and wiggle her hips around! whats that all about? she isn't sleeping the same either. i'll here her moving around a lot more and she'll cry a little or whimper. why is that? i seem to get up more often now to tend to her in the middle of the night. she is so darn cute though! wow.

Saturday 8-13-05

Kim and I celebrate our 5 year anniversary today! Yay! The 16th marks Kims birthday! What a crazy month this has been! Mei Mei started walking in earnest, I get fired, we celebrate two wonderful events, school starts... wow. craziness. what i wanted to say is that Mei Mei has started imitating us. on the phone! she loves to grab remotes and phones and walk around with them but now she is putting the phone to her left cheek and 'listening'! it's the cutest thing! what else has she done? hmmm... oh yes. climbing. walking is old so now she has to try and climb on to everything! how quickly children learn and grow! i think that she will graduate from college by the time that most of us dolts graduate high school! more power to her.

The Cakes Runneth! sort-of...

i never get tired of watching Mei Mei walk! she is sooo darn cute! it's also very funny to watch her as she is still so wobbly! legs out at funny awkward angles and arms a-flailin'! always happy and making funny faces and funny sounds. what a hoot! well, she also tries to run, a bit, when excited but she flails so much and her legs are out so far and stiff that she just tumbles forward and then she'll look at you like "what happened?"! i just say, "uh oh!" and she'll squeell, get up and keep comin' for ya! i have the best time taking care of this little girl! she's been getting pretty cranky lately though! cranky at night, cranky during the day! cranky, cranky cranky! getting bored with her meager surroundings maybe? tired of all her miriad toys? on to bigger and better things, i'm sure. i just love to watch her! again i wonder, what was Dallas like at this age? i see his pictures and he was still awefully cute back then and the stories that i am told are hilarious but, I wasn't there! children are a riot! what fun! i love it! i've got a wonderful family.

no crawling, all walking

so i didn't get any pictures or video of Mei Mei walking around but it was only a few days ago that she was partially walking and mostly still crawling around! how awesome is that! you should see her heavenly little angelic face! all smiles and coos and talking up a storm! what a riot! i almost cried! to see this tiny little precious baby tottering around just made me turn to mush. i couldn't believe it! Dallas was all hugs today, very cuddly. i think that the two of us will hang out for the weekend or something like that. catch a movie. camp out back in the woods and listen to the turkey and coyote, stare at the stars... i like the sound of that! it is in the 70's again! crazy weather!

stay tuned for further developments! everything is unpredictable now...

njm

it has begun!

anyone know of a good place to work that pays what i have been receiving? in hays? nearby? in any case, i have already made phone calls and started networking among the physicians in the area as to where to go and to get reference letters... i have also filed for unemployment! WHAT? me? unemployed? still hasn't sunk in... something is not quite right. funny how you think that the physician is responsible for what he does at the table but not, he is an MD and i am but a peon. i am the fall guy. hmmm... this is putrid. i actually filed for unemployment! can you believe that? even that will take two weeks or so to go through though! it is scary. in the letter of confirmation online, i was informed that the state still has to contact my employer for more information. WHAT? how is that gonna go? now my life is full of uncertainty and yet full of choices. where else can i call? where can i go? what can i do? be a drug or device rep? travel again? relocate? i really don't want to relocate! what we have going here in hays is good! but with no income, what is a man to do? this just might be a blessing in diguise. what would michelle, jake and amy say? brendan and january? good people all of them. i really don't want to leave here any time soon. baby joy is coming soon! the circle will be complete! these kids should get to KNOW each other! how depressing.

fired...

here i sit, on a busy thursday afternoon, at 'home' alone and this time it's not by my choice or even because i wanted to leave early. nope. the cath lab is still cranking out patients right now but one employee short. make that an ex employee. not to mention the others that are out on vacation or taking classes. they are short staffed now. very short. yesterday, i went to a peer review meeting due to an incident and today i find myself with two weeks to find another position at the hospital. what? me? let go so unceremoniously? yup. it happens all the time at hays medical center. only this time it was me who was let go. granted, this was not the only incident that i was involved in and that is the crux of the matter. about two months ago, i was in a procedure where some other incident happened but it was caught later after the patient was gone. this incident was noticed immediately by me and corrected but it was too late. no harm done but the potential was there and so today i find myself at home alone... looking for another position within the organization. or perhaps not! i've got two gracious weeks. at least they gave me that. unbelievable.

i'm going to wal-mart or something. get lost in the crowds for a bit. home depot and sportsmans supply sound good too. heck, the weather is fine too! crazy weather. perhaps i'll buy some beer now that i am not on-call. sit, read, drink... good grief.

this is Nixy. signing out for now...

what day is it now?

i'm back... saved another life... grungy arteries. needed two stents. kicked butt and finished quick. sorry for the expletive earlier! kids, don't do as i do! hopefully sleep will come within an hour or so! doubt it. i'll start a new book in the mean time.

Wednesday 8-2-05

Only Wednesday? It seems like it should be further along the week than that! Yesterday was a long day at work because of negative attitude and today was long for inactivity... I pulled a 4 (6?) horse trailer today and found it easy to do! I hate bumper pull trailers but this new one that my father in law bought is a pleasure to use. One of our horses, Legend, somehow pealed his knee off so Kim took him to the vet and we brought him to Johns' place today to recover and receive plenty of tlc. jake and amy are finally on their way to China! what a trip that will be! i hope that it goes well for them... we are all already holding our collective breaths for their return! baby Colleen is a riot, cute as ever and giving her parents a heck of a time! what fun! Mei Mei is having fits of anger or something lately! i ought to catch THOSE facial expressions on film someday! is she teething again? no, two more top row teeth just poked through recently! is she frustrated because she can't walk any faster? is her world suddenly too small for her? what a total crack-up! Kim's sister (and family, of course) is finally headed back state-side after 4 years of living in Japan! Woohooo! three kids in tow, one of whom was born in Japan... how are they going to adjust to life here in bazine? i think that it's great but will they? i certainly hope so. this is gonna be fun! can't wait for them to arrive in the next few weeks! speaking of next few weeks! school will start again! yes! Dallas absolutely needs to get back on track and out of the house for 8 hours! the fact that i leave every third week hasn't helped him out at all. sorry Dallas, i love you too and miss ya but this is the price we pay for home ownership but with a 20 minute response time at the cath lab. shit my beeper went off... gotta run