thank you blue cross

I just found out that our hospital stay cost $9,000. Good thing we had insurance or else we would have to take out a second mortgage on our house, and that would be tough seeing as we don't have a house.

Hired Help

look at the mover that showed up on my doorstep ready to work.

movin on up

So its officially official. I have a job interview thursday afternoon and so we will be driving up wednesday afternoon after Dotty's test. One week and that's it. I can't believe it.

clothes horse

Last night, in preparation for our move to Utah, I vaccum packed all my skinny clothes for easier storage. (sidenote* those space bags infomercials you keep seeing aren't lying). Moving the clothes from their tub to the protective plastic bags gave me an opportunity to say goodbye to each beautiful piece until god willing we meet again in front of my favorite mirror.
I recently posted on Greg's magazine post about my own love of magazines. The great thing about so many magazines is that it combines my two great loves. words and clothes. I really love clothes. They are so pretty and can change the way you are feeling at any time of the day. My mom calls it dress up, but I call it architecture. The merging of form and function.

I guess she does look like me

but only when we're both sleeping.

extra extra

So I've come to terms with my giant mom boobs. But only because they camouflage the jowls of my stomach.
In other news, ghostbaby is on the loose. But don't show this clip to Sabrina or she will use it in court to gain custody of my child.

love and taxes

We went and saw our accountant yesterday. He saved us $600 or so in taxes. Considering he charged $150 (a big discount) that comes out to a savings of $450. We don't get a lot witheld because I prefer to have my money from month to month than getting a return in the end. People think its free money when really its just your money that the government has been holding on to you for a year. Let me hold onto it. But that's a whole other story
Anyway the whole situation ended up being my first real feminist experience. My whole life I've heard about the challenges facing women. My mother is a beautiful intelligent woman who has challenged the conventional role of a woman and been a wonderful example to me. Oddly though, I have never been a vocal feminist. I've never really faced male domination in my world but here it is.
I take care of the money in our family. My family will probably be worried about that, but I've come a long way and soo we will be able to buy a house and that feels really good. Before we went to our accountant (who is really Don's accountant) I started doing our taxes myself online. Oddly enough I started on my sister Gillian's birthday and when consulting our 2005 tax returns I noticed we had done our taxes on Gill's birthday that year too. It's like the one last fun thing to celebrate before worrying about getting down to business. Anyway I was busy trying to find deductions and getting everything together but it wasn't really working so we decided to give this guy a try. Now when I do my taxes myself I naturally put my name first as the and then Cory as my spouse. But when we went to this guy it was automatically Cory as the primary and I was the spouse, even though:
1. I made almost double what Cory made
2. I made the appointment with the tax guy
3. Walked in with all the papers and information we needed
4. I did all the talking
5. and it was clear that I was the one who took care of the money

In the end this isn't a big deal and I understand that he files so many taxes at this time of year and he's used to filing the husband first. Also he had just finished doing Don's taxes and so it makes sense he would put Cory's name first. I just kind wish I had said something.

a day at the beach

When I started this blog I didn't want it to only be about dotty, but what are you going to do? We went to the beach to take pictures so i'm not going to not post them.
thanks to jon and tiffany for the nautical outfit.
I love this picture. Doesn't she look like she is working the camera?

Amazing Grace

Everyone must see this movie. This is the only movie I have ever seen that has really made me want to change the world. Incredible story and incredible movie.

dotty in hospital

Now I'm a real mother. I've lived through a fever and a hospital stay. Here is the story.

Sunday she didn't seem like herself. She was throwing up after each feeding and acting fussy. I stayed home from church and only went to young women's because I was teaching. Since Dotty was sick, she got to spend the hour with Dad in priesthood. She felt hot but when I took her temperature, it was high but not actual fever high. Monday I went to the doctor for her thrush (more on the metaphor yeast = evil later) and the doctor dismissed her temperature and told me to wait for 38 C no matter where I took it. This is the same doctor that a few weeks earlier dismissed the white gunk on her tongue as milk residue and not thrush without really looking at it....so I don't know why I listened to her. We got medicine for the thursh and thought things would be smooth sailing.

That night she didn't sleep all that well and tuesday morning she threw up her first feeding. I left her sleeping to go running and usually when I get back she is awake and ready to be fed. But when I got back she was still sleeping, pale and really hot. She had a fever of 39 C (which is 102 F.) I'm glad I didn't know the farenheit equivalent then or I would have been more scared. I called the doctor's office at 11am and the doctor I do like got back to me around 1:30. Dotty's fever had gone down and I was sure she would say everything was fine, she's probably just getting over the thrush or something.
But she said to take her directly to the Emergency room. I hung up the phone and just started crying. We got there and talked to the triage nurse who said we were probably overbundling our baby. Can you imagine me overbundling my baby in California? Everyone has coats on the kids and I barely put a blanket on her...its summer! She also told me that one day I would figure out how to stop my baby from crying, as if I just couldn't quiet her so I ran her to the ER. geez. But she got me thinking I should just go home since I didn't want them putting needles in her and drawing blood and possibly doing a spinal tap if it was nothing. I seriously almost went home.
When we talked to people in the ER though they were much more concerned about thte temperature. Everybody listened to me about how she was acting different and looked pale before even though she looked healthy at that moment. They said we always trust a mother. When they drew her blood she screamed and screamed and Cory and I just cried and cried. There are more boring details but in the end we ended up being admitted because of a urinary infection. We stayed while they figured out what bacteria caused it and whether it originated in her urine or her blood. Once there were no more needles to attack my baby the stay was nice. All the nurses fell in love with my little cherub.
Things Dotty did not like about the hospital.
1. getting blood drawn (hellish hell hell)
2. putting in the IV
3. Cold stethascopes









Things Dotty liked about the hospital.
1. meeting new nurses everyday.
2. Getting all the attention for being such a good baby.
3. watching gilmore girls with mummy










We had some visitors at the hospital. Grandpa Don, Aunt Ashley and Uncle Bill (Guillermo wasn't allowed up). Grandmama Lesueur and Sabrina came and were dotty's favorite since they brought...
A BALLOON!




We also started a new game called Shaky Shoes. This shot shows her little shunt they put around her IV in her foot. She looks like a pirate.