A White Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2009!

It has been a long time since we've had a white Christmas in Lawrence! This one makes up for them all. The terms "Winter weather advisory" and "blizzard conditions" do not even come close to what we encountered last night! By the time church let out around seven p.m., the snow was blowing so hard that we couldn't walk to our cars with our eyes open! My parents and my sister and her family came over from Overland Park last night just as it had begun to sleet. We were able to make it to church safely, and after a quick dinner, and a record-speed present opening, they headed home in the middle of the blizzard. Thankfully, everyone made it home safely.

We celebrated Urban Christmas on Wednesday night. It had rained all day...there was even thunder and lightning throughout the day. It's been a tradition that Santa Claus visits Mama and Papa's house and drops off presents in the trees and all around the yard. This weather didn't stop Santa! Instead, he was able to sneak into the house while we were eating dinner and leave a scavenger hunt for the children. They followed clues around the house, finding presents along the way, and eventually ended up in a twinkle-lit garage with a pinata! Needless to say, it was quite an experience that the children will not soon forget.

Some of the highlights included:

-Since we were snowed in today, we spent the day playing Mario Kart on the wii; digging for dinosaur bones; making Paperoni animals; putting together Molly's Fisher Price toys; building Lego Star Wars ships; playing Pokemon Diamond, Petz Nursery, and Tinkerbell on the DS; playing Guess Who and Connect Four by Four; eating leftovers, learning about our new Canon PowerShot camera; petting the FurReal Kitty and getting our own real kitty out of the Christmas tree; watching A Christmas Story marathon, and spending quality time together as a family!

-The stockings were full, but what was most memorable? Ben got a comb and some hair gel in his stocking this year. Grace got a loofah. Oh how times have changed.

-Molly got a boppy penguin (a penguin that bobbles back and forth). It is currently hidden in her closet, where it will remain until she can overcome her intense fear of this toy! The poor child is terrified.

- Brandon and I hid the presents in the trunk of the car this year. (Some of you may remember that we hid them in Molly-to-be's room last year and we pulled the door handle off!) Well, this year, it was not until 10:00 last night that we discovered that the trunk was frozen shut. After unfreezing the doors enough to pull the car into the garage, we poured pitcher after pitcher of steaming water onto the trunk. Eventually it opened, and we hurried to wrap presents until nearly midnight.

We are so thankful for all of the blessings in our lives. Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

Gracie's debut

For those of you who don't know just yet....Gracie and I will be singing a duet in church on Sunday, December 27th. You are all invited! But if you cannot come or have your own church service to attend, here is a sneak peak - an impromptu late night kitchen performance - soon to be all over youtube I'm sure! I joked with Brandon that he needs to send it to JJ Heller, the writer/singer of "Your Hands". So, here goes...keep in mind that when we sing it in church, we will have a guitar player and a bass player accompanying us! Oh, and if you haven't already seen the blog post before this one, check it out...because Molly has quite a set of pipes as well!

Molly Finds Her Voice

We had an early morning today... Molly had to be at the hospital at 6:45 to get her tubes put in her ears. This followed a night where she was not allowed to eat after 1:00 a.m. Those of you who know Molly know that this does not necessarily jive with her agenda : ) So it was early and we were all a bit tired! Thank goodness grandma and grandpa had Ben and Grace over for a slumber party.
Everything went perfect. Molly was a model patient.
Here is a short video of Molly a few hours after her surgery... she has indeed found her voice!

A fun and festive weekend!

Friday night we had our church "young couples white elephant party" at Signs of Life Christian Bookstore in downtown Lawrence. I brought a white elephant...literally...an elephant that I painted white, stuck a bow on his head, and put him in a shiny silver bag...one that no one could resist. Brandon worked on his last minute gift: a scrapbook with pictures of our friends that were enhanced by faceinhole.com. I was pictured with Edward and Jacob from Twilight. Barry was a Teletubbie. Pictures ranged from Hannah Montana to the Jackson Five. Both of our gifts were stolen several times. What did we end up with? A statue of Beethoven and a faded t-shirt and some broken watches. It could have been worse. There was a rule that if you opened something that could be worn, you must put it on. Fortunately for you Barry, we did not get a great picture of you in your lingerie, so your pic will not make this blog post. Here is a picture of our friends Chris and Mark...you may recognize them as one of your favorite Christmas movie characters.

Saturday night we had our game night group over for an ornament exchange. We had great food that centered around the Christmas theme. We had oreo eggnogg, Santa's crack dip, Blitzen balls, Christmas kabobs, and much much more. We played a Christmas movie trivia game. We also got our kids together for a picture and vowed to do it each year as a tradition. I joked with Keri and Jeremy that next year they might have one to add to the mix. We'll see!

Today we had our Christmas Cantata at church. It was titled "Speak to Me". I've been a nervous wreck for weeks since I had a solo called "The Lion and the Lamb". My voice hasn't really been all that great since I had that cold last month, so I've been drinking lemon/honey tea to prepare! All was well, because according to Brandon, I "rocked it out"! I was so excited to share it with so many people! Sandra and Mike were there, as well as Uncle Aaron, and even our friend Melanie came to visit LHCC today. We all celebrated with lunch at our house afterwards.

The weekend ended with one minor bump in the road. We took Molly to First Med again tonight with what was diagnosed as her SIXTH ear infection. I will call the doctor tomorrow to make sure that we are still on for tubes on Wednesday now that she is on an antibiotic.

Brandon update

So it happened. Brandon finally went to the doctor. In fact, it had been so long that they had our previous address listed. I went along with him so I could tell them just how worried I am about these headaches. He has now had four within five days, all in the left temporal lobe and all extremely painful. The doctor threw out some possible scenarios, such as temporal arteritis (which usually occurs in men over age 50!) and some other things. Although my gut feeling is that he needs an MRI, I have to rely on the doctors...they know best. So Brandon had some bloodwork done on Tuesday. It came back yesterday with elevated levels of CRP. This could mean several things....an infection of some sort, too much protein in the liver, google it and you'll get a million "could-be"s. It could even be that he had too much Ibuprofin before the blood draw. So, we wait. Brandon is ibuprofin-free for a week and then he gets more bloodwork. Hopefully we will have some answers then. For now, he can have Imitrex for the pain. If we find that it was Ibuprofin, then we are back at square one. What is causing them and how can we fix them! We will keep you posted..on Brandon and on Molly! This weekend we have a few Christmas parties, the Christmas Cantata at church, and some other fun things, so watch for pics!

Listen up...

As most of you know, Molly has had five ear infections in the last few months and is not babbling. No, that's not the speech pathologist in me talking...it's the concerned mother. Molly does enjoy hearing her own voice. She says 'ahhhhh" and "ooohh" at the top of her lungs, but she just hasn't produced many consonants (which should begin to emerge at 3 to 6 months!). I knew Molly was behind, but we wanted to see if antibiotics would work with her ear infections, and we figured that she was busy working on her gross motor skills. (She is pulling herself up and scooting around furniture!)

Today we went to the ENT (Ear/Nose/Throat doc). Molly went through several hearing tests. Her favorite was in the sound booth, where she sat on my lap while the audiologist presented several pure tone sounds in one ear while lights and crazy stuffed animals were presented on the other side of the booth. Ideally, Molly was supposed to hear the sounds and turn her head. She did not. Molly continued to watch for the lights and the animals. Even when the lights and animals stopped, and the spoken words were presented, Molly did not turn her head. By now, I was more concerned. When the tympanograms came out flat, I knew she wasn't hearing us completely. The doc said both ears were full of fluid. She cannot hear spoken words in either ear. In the right ear, she hears only muffled voices, like she's under water and noises that are low frequency sounds. The left ear was more difficult to interpret. It appeared that she wasn't hearing anything at all, which seemed to baffle the ENT. Both eustachian tubes were "very small" and not allowing fluid to drain, even with the strongest antibiotics. The summary and recommendations?

Molly has a significant hearing loss. Tubes should restore all of her hearing in the right ear, and we'll just have to wait and see on the left ear. She's young. The tests could be wrong. We should talk to her in her right ear and "continue to use sign language" with her.

Tubes will be placed next Wednesday. We're all hoping and praying that Molly will hear our voices loud and clear right after the surgery!

Another night of mishaps and miracles....

YUCK.

A while ago, we blogged about a crazy night during which Brandon and I spilled red wine on the carpet, Molly was up all night, and a mouse was trapped out in our kitchen. Well, last night, combined with today...I think this beats it all.

Last night, all was well when we turned out the lights. At 1:30 a.m. Brandon woke up with a headache that he deemed "the worst pain of his life." Yes, the worst pain, not just headache of his life. He said this was much worse than breaking his hand a few years ago, or having a tombstone dropped on his head. (that's a story for another day) I, of course, ran for some Imitrex, assuming he was having his first migraine. (I'm such a pro) After that, paired with Ibuprofin, didn't work, I began to think the worst. As I watched Brandon endure the pain, even in tears at times, I began to think of all the things that could be wrong. I made the mistake of googling his symptoms only to find "aneurysm" "aneurysm" "aneurysm" everywhere! An hour went by, and his pain worsened. We debated about going to the emergency room. I thought about calling my friend Keri who lives near us, or my mother-in-law, who would have to drive across town. As I was debating this, Brandon fell asleep. By now, it was 3:00. I stayed awake until 5:30, which seemed like forever...watching him closely to make sure he was breathing. By six, I was exhausted. And then I realized something. In all this time that Brandon and I were awake, Molly had been sleeping. Molly finaly slept through the night! And Brandon and I were too awake to notice.

In the morning, Brandon's headache was gone. Our Sunday morning routine began as usual..when Ben came up the stairs complaining of a stomach ache. For the faint of heart, this is a warning. Turn back now. Sign out. For those of you that can handle it, read on.

In my 8 years as a mother, I have never had to clean up what I cleaned up this morning. Poor Ben. He made it to the bathroom, only to throw up right in front of the toilet. I asked him why he couldn't lean just a little bit more forward and he said "I don't want to touch the toilet to open it." But it was perfectly okay to regurgitate last night's burger from Spangles, pickles and all. As soon as this happened, he went to lay down in his room for awhile. We figured it was something he ate, so we wanted to wait and see if he was okay for church. Within 10 minutes, he christened the bathroom downstairs with something I can only describe as "unbearable". I immediately recognized the smell from back in 1994, when I came back from a mission trip only to be hospitalized with campylobacter jejuni - food poisoning! I had just finished cleaning the main bathroom, and now I had to clean the kids' bathroom. After Ben showered, he felt better. We thought it was over. We went to church. Ben threw up in the church bathroom and on the church floor. There were even pickles in the urinal! One of the church members was nice enough to mop up after us. I took Ben home, and he showered in our bathroom. You guessed it, our shower was a victim as well.

I went to choir practice. That same church member asked me if Ben had had pickles last night. He said "I've never seen whole pickles come right back up...or out!" Enough said on that.

Brandon stayed home with Ben, while the girls went to Grandma's. When I got home, Brandon informed me that not only did he deal with cleaning up Ben, and cleaning the bathroom, he also caught the much evasive mouse! And Brandon is known for fearing two things: bodily fluids and mice.

Now we are off to the Christmas program at church. Ben will stay home and someone else will take his line: "You know? I kind of miss old Reuben." Yes, yes, he will.

Fall pictures

Last weekend, we went to a park near Pinkney School and took some fall pictures. I can't believe how much they've grown...and so fast. It's been a week of milestones for Molly. She now has two teeth and is crawling all over the place. She enjoys "walking" along furniture with our help and she has started to share her voice with us a little bit more. Every day brings something new!

Ben's soccer season has ended. He's been practicing his cursive skills and reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Grace has started dancing at Dazzler's Christian Dance. She does a routine to Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, and although she says she doesn't like that song, she certainly likes to show off her moves. Ben and Grace are practicing for their Christmas program at church, which is quickly approaching.

Brandon is excited that the KU basketball season has begun again, and I've been busy obsessing over the New Moon movie. Pretty much, all is well with the Urban family.

Molly is Mobile!

Molly has been moving around a lot lately. Mostly scooching, army crawling and rolling. Tonight she crawled "for real"... and we got it on video!
Enjoy :)

A Halloween Story

Once upon a time, on a Halloween night in 2009, a devil, an angel, and a lion cub appeared on Sage Brush Drive. They could barely wait until the sun went down to scurry through the neighborhood asking for candy. As the trio moved from house to house, the lion cub fell fast asleep and missed most of the journey. All was well, because the angel and the devil gladly accepted her candy for her. When their bags were full and their feet tired, they returned home to empty the contents of their bags. The angel, doing as only we would expect her to do, quickly sorted her candy into different categories...possibly even alphabetizing them. The devil dumped his bag and began negotiations. Soon, the angel was surrounded by neatly sorted piles of candy, and the devil had only empty wrappers as evidence of his efforts.

And then, when it was time for the angel and the devil to go to sleep, the lion cub awoke....a fitting end to another All Hallows Eve.

Who does this look like?

Milestones for Molly

Molly is trying really hard to crawl. She's almost there, and I'm betting it will be before the end of the weekend! I just couldn't resist posting this picture of her. This was taken two seconds after she realized that crawling is much more effective than rolling across the floor!

The Top Twelve

So now that blog posts are very few and far between, we think it's best to put together another top 10 list to summarize the past six weeks. We have so much to share that we're going to make it a top twelve. Here goes!

12. Brandon's brother, Brett got engaged last month. We will be heading to Cancun in July to celebrate his marriage to Devan. You can check out their website at www.mywedding.com/brettanddevan

11. Brandon has taken on a second job. Okay, really, he's just helping out our friends who own Fun and Games, a local game/costume shop that makes most of their money during the Halloween season. Brandon told Kyle that he work for free and Kyle replied "If I don't give you the money, it's going to wind up in your wife's purse", to which Brandon replied "Ok, give me a check." Ben and Grace are excited to go see Daddy selling and modeling costumes. He will be there most evenings and weekends beginning this week if you are interested as well! Here's our plug "Buy Local! Support Fun and Games!"

10. We have not managed to outsmart the swine flu after all. After spiking a fever of 103 on Sunday, Ben stayed home Monday and Tuesday with what appears to be H1N1 virus. Grace was quick to follow, and she stayed home today and is out tomorrow as well. We're keeping our fingers crossed that Molly is somehow immune to the whole thing.

9. Brandon and his father put a laminate wood floor in the living room. We were so excited to see the old carpet go that we didn't even consider how cool this would be for the kids! Not only do we see Ben and Grace race across the floor in their socks very much like Tom Cruise in Risky Business, but Molly has learned to scoot from one end to the other at an amazing speed.

8. Speaking of Molly, she is beginning to talk. Those of you that hang out with me know that I have been way too concerned about her speech/language development. As a speech pathologist, and as a mom, I had it in my head that Molly MUST be babbling by age 3 to 6 months. Instead of doing that, she focused on motor development and doing things like sitting up, rolling across the floor, and throwing toys. She has been communicating by "turning on her siren", which sounds very much like a tea pot coming to a boil. Thankfully, she is beginning to talk. Babbling? What was I thinking? Molly went straight to imitating whole words. As of today, I think we've heard "boo, ut-oh, hi" and Ben swears he heard her say "Dilly Bar."

7. Ben's soccer team, the KSA Heat, has been battling other premier teams in the KC area. We are currently tied for fourth place but we still have a few games to play. Ben has scored several goals and is really improving. We are HUGE KSA fans, not only because our Ben plays for them, but because their color is ORANGE.

6. Grace earned several badges at Camp Hidden Valley last month. I don't remember receiving badges for roasting hotdogs, but she did! She also learned several new camp songs, including "Hi Ho, Captain Jack, meet me down by the railroad track, With your hiking boots in hand, I'm gonna be your hiking man" and so forth... They're very catchy.



5. Molly began eating baby food. So far, she is not a fan of peas, but she LOVES sweet potatoes.

4. Molly had her first trip to the Emergency Room. Fortunately, doctors in Great Bend, Kansas can identify and treat an ear infection. And fortunately, they won't remember us!

3. Grace's soccer team has won no games. Zilch. Nada. None. A few have even gone so far as to be 27 to zero. Oh, but they don't keep score at that age. Here's the thing: parents do.

2. Luna doesn't make the blog much. This week, she's going out of her way to make headlines again. She took Grace's pet chip (yes, I said chip....a tortilla chip with a face drawn on it in crayon) off the top shelf in her room, took a bite out of it, and proceeded to eat its remains right in front of a shrieking Grace. "Luna killed my pet chip!" Need I say more?

1. Brandon and I enjoyed celebrating our anniversary in wine country. We will continue to celebrate until all of this wine has disappeared. We are currently watching Glee and enjoying some Stone Hill Port.

A weekend at the wineries

Although Brandon and I had our 10-year anniversary in August, we waited until this weekend to get away for awhile and celebrate. On Friday we began our weekend at the wineries in Missouri. We started out by stopping in Rocheport at Les Bourgeois Vineyard. We had dinner at the Blufftop Bistro. I had my favorite wine of the entire weekend - the vignoles-traminette. Brandon enjoyed the ambiance...the architecture, the stainless steel tables, the high wood beam ceilings, and the view overlooking the river.

Saturday morning we drove to Augusta, Missouri. We went to the Montelle Winery. We got there early and snagged a table overlooking the old river valley. Although the air was brisk, we had a table in a little spot of sun, and that, paired with the wine, made us feel just warm enough. We stayed there for a few hours and listened to a local band. We even made a few friends who chatted with us from a nearby table.

After Montelle, we checked into our Bed and Breakfast. Actually, we deemed it a Bed With Own Breakfast. Since the trip was planned at the last minute, all of the local B & B's were booked and since the town of Augusta only has 400 people in it, there was no Holiday Inn to be found. Brandon was fortunate enough to hear of a new place in town...that was open but had not been marketing itself yet. It was called Stone Ledge and was located above the antique shop. Pictures will not do this place justice. After you climb a few flights of steps, you arrive on a private back porch with a little bistro set. You enter into the kitchen, proceed into the living room, and then back to the bedroom. The windows let so much light in. The architecture was beautiful. The owners, "Ruthie" and "Annie" welcomed us whole-heartedly. They left fresh eggs, milk, cheese, orange juice and other goodies in the refridgerator. I just can't say enough about this place!

After we checked in, we went to the Balducci Winery and tasted some wine. It was crowded and not very welcoming, so we went up the street a ways to the Mount Pleasant Winery...one that we had visited a few years ago and one that my parents like to go to as well. There were several wedding parties at Mount Pleasant so the wine tasting room was packed. We still managed to grab a great spot on the hill overlooking the fields. We listened to the band and watched the sun set. We enjoyed one of our absolute favorite wines...the Appellation Augusta Port.

Then we drove back into town and had dinner outside under the heaters and twinkle lights at the Augusta Brewing Company.

This morning we got up early and went for a walk in Augusta. (doesn't take long!) Then Brandon made breakfast in our little kitchen, we packed our bags, and headed home. On the way home, we decided to drive to Hermann and check out the Stone Hill Winery. There, we learned about how wine is made and stored and got a tour of the world's largest underground cellars. Then we went down the street to the Hermannhoff Winery just to say that we'd been there!

We got back on 70 and headed home....but not before we stopped at Rocheport again to have our final glass of wine at the A-Frame...an outdoor multi-tiered deck at Les Bourgeois.

It was a fabulous weekend.

This, I believe, is our 99th blog post. August has flown by and we should have oodles and oodles of new pictures to share with you, but due to Brandon's computer being on the fritz and me not knowing the restrictions on this new and wonderful Shawnee Heights-issued laptop, we've failed to document all of our activities! So, in other words, we'll save the pictures for the big 100th post. Stay tuned! Until that day, here's what we've been up to....Here's the Urban Top Ten List for the month of August. Maybe the readers should sit down for this:



10. I started my new job. The first day, on the way to work, I ran over a squirrel and got hail damage on the car. My first student...he locked me out of my office and then proceeded to lock himself in the bathroom. I managed to talk him out before I had to crawl under the stall. Lesson learned. But seriously? I leave the house early, I get home late, and Brandon has become Mr. Mom. He drops off the kids in the morning, makes their lunches, gets them dressed, and keeps things running smoothly. Although I have to mention that the very first day of school, I forgot to drop off Molly's binky, and Brandon forgot to pack the kids' lunch or send lunch money. We get one free pass, right?


9. Brandon played in a golf tournament at Prairie Dunes in Hutch, KS. The weather was beautiful, the golfing was good...what more can there be? He plays softball two nights a week and I think the combination of these things is the only thing that keeps my Mr. Mom sane. That, and the beer they drink after the game!


8. Ben lost his front tooth, or really he just yanked it out because he thought the Tooth Fairy would bring him a Wii game. "Sorely" mistaken!


7. Grace started first grade, Ben started third grade, and Molly Bell started daycare. We started thinking...where has the time gone?


6. Molly broke the deal that we made when she was born. (the one where she would sleep through the night once Mommy started work)


5. Ben started twice-a-week soccer practices and our cars practically drive themselves to Free State High School. Thankfully, the other day I noticed Eileen's Colossal Cookie Shop right across the street. Score! Gracie's practice is right across from Taco John's, so either way, I'm set.


4. Brandon and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary. After getting up with Molly several times each night and bickering back and forth about who got up the time before or for the longest..well, it's a wonder we're still married! Our small group at church just finished studying the book of Luke and we're off to begin a tour of Gilligan's Island. Maybe, because of the bickering I just spoke of, we should have gone through the Love Dare.


3. We have stayed swine-flu free at our house.


2. Mabel moved to the farm. She didn't buy the farm. She moved to Mrs. Clark's farm. Really. Luna is lucky to have been able to stay, especially since she recently got trapped in the ductwork and peed up there. How did we know? We turned on the air conditioning.


1. Molly mastered the art of laughing, although she has my sister's "silent laugh" -unless it's four in the morning. Then she somehow finds her voice. And there it is again.....

It's been awhile!

It's been SO long since our last post, but not for the lack of activities! In the past few weeks, we have celebrated Grace's birthday and my own, participated in our church's Vacation Bible School, taken the kids to swim camp and swim lessons, and much much more. Next week will bring even more! Brandon and I will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary, I will begin a new job with Shawnee Heights School District, the kids will begin school again, and Molly will go to daycare for the first time. So many changes!

Gracie celebrated her 6th birthday with a water-themed party. We had several little pools out in the yard, a slip and slide, a sprinkler, and a bunch of water balloons. Megan made yet another wonderful cake, this time a giant beach ball. It didn't last long with 10 first graders and our family! It was a great afternoon and the weather was perfect. More to come later!

A Lawrence tradition

The city of Lawrence holds a free band concert every Wednesday during the summer months. Last Wednesday, we met Julia, Bryan, and Will at South Park for a picnic dinner and some music! Julia made sandwiches and salad and I made a fruit salad and some cookies. We spread out our blanket, applied bug spray to ourselves and the children, and settled in to enjoy a wonderful evening! Next week is the last performance of the summer, and although we caught the series just at the end of the summer, we plan on making this a tradition!

Today in church, Barry gave a dedication in honor of baby Molly. The entire family attended church and the Urban/Sgarlat clan took up a full two pews. I sang in the "Patriotic musical" and was glad to have the family there to watch me. It was a great morning. After church, we all came back to the house for pizza and cake.

Nana and Papa left before they had a chance to be a part of "Faces by Grace", a collection of photographs taken by Miss Grace herself. Here is her slideshow...I think we could have a photographer on our hands!

4th of July

As is tradition, we celebrated the fourth of July with our best friends, Megan and Barry and Isaac. We had a BBQ and then decided that this year, instead of spending way too much money on our own explosions, we would watch the city of Eudora's fireworks. (probably a lot safer too!) We had a great time. Megan and Isaac, along with Molly and me, watched the fireworks from the van, while Barry, Brandon, Ben, and Grace "braved the cold" outside. Here are a few pics from the evening.

The Topeka Zoo

Today, the five of us went to the Topeka zoo. It started out rainy and cloudy but as soon as we got there, the sun came out and we were blessed with a perfect day.
All three kids were on their best behavior and enjoyed the zoo very much.
Here are some of the highlights: the baby orangutan showing off on the ropes, the elephant doing a dance, the new baby zebra Flint, the oversized bats in the rainforest and the one that waved at us, Molly lifting her dress over her head, the animal playground, and the porcupine.