Computers….stupid computers.  You’d think I’d love them since I have a degree in Computer Science, but no, I don’t.  Well really I do, but right now I don’t because mine is broken, that’s right, broken, won’t even turn on….

I gave in, I was weak, I just wanted to be cool like all the other hip people around.  Royal and I needed a new computer pretty bad, he was going to be starting school, our old one was running S.L.O.W. and I pretty much wanted to throw it out a window most of the time.  But it was running.  Unlike the one we now own that we bought.  So, less than a year ago, 10 months to be exact, I thought I was fed up with PC’s and Windows and all the virus’ and spyware and such, so Royal and I talked it over and I managed to convince him we should get a Mac.  Everyone kept telling me they are so much better, so much easier, they just don’t have the problems that PCs do.  Big fat liars.  I needed this Mac to be easy for poor Royal’s sake.  He really hates computers or technology for that matter, and switching operating systems, and programs, and shortcut keys on him was not going to be easy and I was going to have to be the one to listen to the griping.  But we did it anyway.  And our little Mac has been giving me problems since the get go.  It’s favorite problem is to freeze up and give me Apple’s version of Window’s blue screen of death.  Yes, Apple’s version is much more user friendly, it lets you know what is going on.  It grey’s over your screen and then has a message in 4 different languages that tells you you need to restart your computer.  Not like I hadn’t already figured that out.  Sometimes the computer wouldn’t even turn on, it would just beep really loud over and over until you shut it off again.  I looked over the error report it gave me when it finally would turn back on and the first word in the report - “panic”.  I kid you not.  I should of really paid more attention to the first word and started panicking.  I should of started frantically backing up my files.  But no, I was deceived by all the lies that go with Macs.  I thought it would stay alive forever, so I just put off my file back up because well it’s boring and I don’t like doing it that much and well my PC never died to the point of me panicking about my files being locked inside a big piece of junk that won’t turn on.  Saturday, when I tried to turn on our lovely little Mac, all I got over and over and over was that horrible beeping telling me that it was panicking and couldn’t figure out what to do and wasn’t going to turn on so I might as well just shut it off and start over.  If it ever got past the inital point where it would beep, it would just give me the “grey screen of death” with the friendly message telling me to restart.  I can’t even get the thing to boot up in safe mode, it just freezes and wants to restart.  Stupid computer.  So all my precious files, at least all the files that are on there from the last time I backed them all up, are frozen inside my white little piece of junk with an apple on the cover.  All I ever wanted was to be cool and fit in.  I might as well be in highschool again, eating lunch in the bathroom, because I didn’t have any friends to sit with. (not even my sister thought I was cool enough to let me sit with her…cruel I know…God will punish her for it later…)  That’s right I was just as big of a loser then as I am now, but at least now I’ve accepted it and am fine with it, and I’ve manage to find other people who are fine with my loserness and will let me eat lunch with them…(thanks Royal).

So, what you ask, am I writing this post on?  Royal was nice enough to leave his laptop from work here for me, so I could stay connected, because we all know I would go through serious withdrawls if I was cut off from the internet.  And what is Royal’s laptop?  An older than dirt Dell, running Windows XP, than takes 5 minutes to open a program, but at least it turns on and opens it, and the comma key doesn’t really work, I have to hit it really hard and even then most the time I have to back up and try it again, and the battery can’t hold a charge for more than 5 minutes.  But the freaking thing turns on and that’s what’s really important. 

So, screw all you happy macky apple people out there.  I just might be a PC.  (Death to Apple)  Although I still do love my iPod.

After we had a few fantastic weeks of 70 and 80 degree weather, us here in Kansas are getting ready for a cold snap and a freaking blizzard. Good thing I never transplanted my strawberries into our garden box or I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t of survived the storm that is coming. Starting tonight, Wichita is suppose to get around 10 inches of snow in blizzard conditions. We’ve had hail and freezing rain the past couple of hours and the road in front of our house look pretty icy, hopefully Royal can get home alright after work. Here’s a newly frozen window in our house.

So, while we’re waiting on the storm…..
I finally decided to get over my OCD about play doh colors getting all mixed together. I have a 5 year stash of play doh in the pantry thanks to Christmas, so really if I want to use a specific color, chances are there’s an unopened can of it somewhere. And really, whose the play doh for? If Jayden wants to smoosh it all together, than fine with me! So, Jayden and I made this tie-dye looking road with a tree, turtle, a duck eating a snake (which I think it looks like the snake is eating the duck, but whatever….), and some worms.

And then of course it isn’t a storm without a bunch of cooking going on. Royal’s gonna love all the dishes I’ve got piled up for him and I’m probably not even done yet…he he he. Plus the oven helps heat up the house, so it’s like killing 2 birds with 1 stone. Food is cooking in the crock pot, I’ve got all the stuff out to make some beer bread, I’ll probably make some breakfast egg muffins incase the power goes out tonight, and Jayden and I just finished making a chocolate pie!

And just to keep my distant family happy, here’s a bunch of pictures of the kidlettes.

Royal? Is that you? Oh no, it’s just Jayden…even Willow looks a little scared.

Jayden hurt his knee while climbing in the car today. When we got home, he decided he needed dad’s “bandaid” to make it feel better and then he propped it up on a pillow.

I have been wanting a road bike for over 5 years now, and each time I finally decided to go get one, something else would come up and I just couldn’t justify spending that money on something I wanted, not really needed. Back in 2003 I did a triathlon up in Seattle and I just rode the bike portion on my mountain bike. I didn’t know it would make such a difference. There I was pedaling my legs off, going as fast as I could, and these people on road bikes just kept going right on past me like they weren’t even trying. Very discouraging for my competitive self. So it was then I started looking at getting a road bike, because I figured I could kick some royal butt if I could ride faster. I can do the run no problem. My swim portion is just screwed because I am just not a very efficient swimmer. I asked Jordan to give me lessons since he was on the swim team and all, but after he saw me swimming he was laughing so hard he could hardly talk, so I thought maybe I could do duathlons or something, but if I could get a fast bike I could totally beat more people. :) However, I never got one. Each year when I got my bonus from work, that was what I was going to spend it on. But it just turned out each year that we needed the money for something else. Royal was switching jobs, or we were buying a house, or having a kid, or I was quitting my job, or we were paying off all our debt, or whatever. Royal is not a frivolous buyer of anything and I did already have my mountain bike, so he never really saw any reason to fork over that kind of cash for another bike.

Then we moved to Wichita and Royal made a very sad choice. One weekend, after our house had sold, I’d just come back from house hunting in Wichita, was pregnant, and managed to come down with the flu, and our neighbors were having a garage sale. While I was sick in bed, Royal decided that he didn’t want to move our bikes here, so he sold them in our neighbors garage sale. Our bikes and our helmets (what were we never going to ride bikes again???) I didn’t have any idea until the transaction had already gone through and Royal was coming to tell me he was going to drive them over to their new owners house. (What???????) I was so mad, I couldn’t believe it. Royal didn’t quite get it, he figured we hadn’t rode them in awhile, so we obviously didn’t need them anymore. I think I was upset at him for like 3 days before he asked how long I was going to be mad at him. I told him I was going to be mad for probably a week and then I would forgive him, but that he had made a very expensive mistake and even though I didn’t bring it up anymore, it doesn’t mean that I still don’t want a new bike. :) He said, ‘I’ll get you a new bike, I’ll get one for like 30 bucks at a garage sale.’ I don’t this so, bucko. And really, I’ve been pretty good about not bringing up the fact over and over when I would of really liked to have had my old bike. There have been times when I’ve slipped and said something, but I have really tried to keep my mouth shut - very hard if you know me. :)

Royal is not one who just buys me things all the time. He is very practical and doesn’t look for things that I might like and then just get them because he knows I’ll like it. However, on the flip side, when my birthday or Christmas comes around I pretty much get what I ask for. He usually doesn’t try and get creative (he has surprised me in the past though), he just wants a list of what I want and then he goes out and finds it. So, 2 weeks ago when he said to me, ‘On Saturday we’re going and buying your bike’, I about fell off my chair - it’s not Christmas OR my birthday. Royal said I had to get one on Saturday or the deal was up and who knows when he might offer it up again. I don’t know why he has these rules, but I’m not one to buck the system! So, last Saturday, we went to a bike store, I told the guy what kind of bike I wanted and what I wanted to be able to do with it and then I test rode this bike and I don’t think I’ve ever gone so fast on a bike without trying. It was so great! So, that’s the bike Royal bought me, a Specialized Dolce. I spent a couple hours at the bike store yesterday having the bike fitted to me and now I’m good to go. I am so excited! Watch out Jessie, I’m coming back to Washington (some day) and I’ll be chasing you down (or just riding with you) in the STP!

This morning was a morning of doctor appointments for us. Royal had an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon to talk over his MRI results from Wednesday. Good news, no surgery! He has a tear on his outer meniscus, no ligament damage, but he’ll have to do physical therapy for awhile and it’ll be a good 6 weeks before he can play basketball or anything again. The only good thing I can think of for me in the this whole thing is that I won’t have to deal with stinky sweaty basketball clothes for awhile. :) But the doctor did see a couple cysts in Royal’s knee that he said should not be there and could possibly be what has been making Royal’s knee swell up so much. So, he stuck a 3 inch needle in Royal’s knee and drained out like 60cc’s of what Royal described as cranberry colored nastiness, and had it sent off to a lab to determine if those cysts are going to need to be taken care of. Let me tell you, I have been hearing about that huge needle all day. :) I’m not sure Royal was a little bit traumatized by it.

While Royal was off getting his knee shrunk back down to normal size, Jayden and I took Willow to her 4 month well check. Willow is coming along quite nicely, she weighs 14 1/2 pounds, and is 24 inches long. Turns out she’s a short, little fatty with a small head. :) Her weight is in the 70th percentile, her height in the 40th, and her little head in the 20th. Gotta love those percentile charts to make you feel like you can’t grow a kid right! :) She also has been cleared for eating some rice cereal! Hot dog! So, I whipped some up tonight and while she ate it, I don’t think she’s as excited as me about it.

We have been working the past couple weekends to get our garden box filled with dirt so I can start planting veggies in it.

I prefer to let Royal do the heaving lifting and shoveling, while I do the mixing and raking. Obviously this was pre-injury…

Jayden he just bounces around from helping me to helping Royal. Mostly, he just loves to play in the dirt, as most kids do!

Sadly, since Royal’s injury, I now have to do the heavy lifting, shoveling, mixing, AND raking. It’s just not fair, I am pretty sure now Royal took himself out on purpose. But at least I had a photographer to take my picture this time!

Now, all I need to do is rake the dirt and get the box all leveled out - hopefully tomorrow - and then start planting! Wahoooo!!!

Jayden and I made some shamrock sugar cookies yesterday.

He carried the cookie cutter around all day and said, ‘oh mom, this is my favorite! i must need it!’ So, cookies we made.
Jayden has his own rolling pin and gets his own ball of dough to roll out and cut.

He used to be able to roll out and make a couple cookies out of his dough when we made cookies, but then he discovered how delicious cookie dough was and well he just can’t help himself - hence the small amount of dough in the above picture. Each time he’d break off a piece of dough and shove it in his mouth he’d say, ‘that’s enough, i’m full now’ and then another piece would find it’s way into his mouth until he had no dough left and no cookies cut out.

Willow hung out with us, chillin’ on the counter. No dough for her yet!

She held the cookie cutter for me.

Later in the day, I was rocking Willow, putting her down for a nap, when I hear the porch door open and close. I look out the window and find Jayden sitting on the porch eating sugar cookies. Needless to say, he was bouncing off the walls for the rest of the day.

While Royal and Jayden are off to Home Depot to pick up some more dirt for my garden box, dirt that I am going to have to haul around now that Royal has injured himself dang-it-all, and Willow is taking a nap, I have finished filling out my NCAA Tourny Bracket. I have watched absolutely NO college basketball, I don’t read ESPN daily, so I really have no idea what teams are good, who has that one great player, who got a bad seed in the tourny, who could upset who, etc. My bracket picks are really based loosely off of seeding, school colors, if one team’s mascot could beat the other team’s mascot in a real life fight, very scientific kinda stuff. Like Wake Forest for example, I had never even heard of Wake Forest until Royal came along and had me start filling out a bracket, because let’s face it, our marriage needs a little more competition in it. But I have come to really like Wake Forest in my picking because every year I try and come up with what the heck a Wake Forest is. Is it a forest where nothing sleeps? Is is a forest with a lake and lots of boats with real big wakes? And I like Syracuse because they are orange and white and remind me of a creamsicle and I love orange creamsicles. And then of course I have to push Kansas through because I guess I need to support the state that I now live in. But then there are the Washington teams, and oh how I miss Washington. And Royal does nothing but talk about how our kids will be going to UW and then my best friend Teresa graduated from Gonzaga, so I have to push Gonzaga and Washington through, can’t have them getting beat in the first round. All in all, I have Duke winning the whole thing. Want to know why? Because it was one of the few teams I had left at the end and I have a Duke sweatshirt that I love! Very very good reasoning if you ask me. :)

Poor Royal has been complaining about getting old for awhile now. So much so that when Jayden runs down the street, he’ll stop after while, put his hands on his lower back and look at me and say, ‘Mom, I’m just too old to run like this’. Well, what Royal did today has got him really grumbling about being old. (just so you know, i don’t think we’re old. i feel great!)

Royal has been playing basketball a few times a week during his lunch break since we got here to Wichita. I’ve never seen Royal play basketball (can you believe that??? it’s not that i don’t want to, i’ve just never had the opportunity), but from what I hear, he’s pretty good. He’s come home with some major bruises and knots in his muscles from playing, which doesn’t surprise me, Royal’s doesn’t half-ass hardly anything. So, I’m guessing he’s knocking people around as much as he’s getting knocked around. Well today, Royal has really done himself in. He planted his right foot, with a plan to cut to the left, and well, his body went left, his knee went right. Not good, not good. Down went Royal. I’m sure it was the thud heard round the gym. Royal ain’t no little guy and I’m guessing he didn’t go down floating like a feather. He called me after he hobbled across campus back to his office and asked if I could make him a doctor’s appointment. I could tell from his voice right off that something wasn’t right, so I knew he was in a bit of pain. He ended up going to a walk in clinic down the road from his office to get it checked out. No bones are broken, but he’s going to get an MRI done this week, then those results will get forwarded to an orthopedic, and we’ll figure out our options from there. But at this point, it looks like it is probably an outer meniscus tear with possible MCL damage. We don’t know if it will require surgery or not (hopefully not!), but at this point, he’s got to keep a brace on it and keep it elevated and iced. Jayden is gonna be hurting without his wrestling buddy, but as Royal is usually a stubborn patient (shocking!), I’ve been teaching Jayden to constantly tell Royal, ‘RICE dad, RICE!’(Rest Ice Compression Elevation)

Royal so far hasn’t been too worried about what exactly is wrong with his knee, I’ve mostly been hearing how I need to change what food I cook and buy for him, because he’s going to be sitting on the couch and he doesn’t want to get fat. Oh good grief, I’m not sure Royal could get fat if he tried too. If I make chocolate chip cookies, he’s still going to get 90% of them, he just can’t help himself. And I don’t mind cooking most the time, and I like to bake way more than cook, so he’s just gonna have to keep on eating. Plus March Madness starts this week, isn’t it just convenient that Royal just happens to get an injury that’s going to keep him on the couch with his feet up, and our reclining furniture just happens to be in front of the TV. I’m just not sure this wasn’t planned.

Royal’s none to pleased that I’m writing a post about this. But really, the world’s gotta know about this! Well ok, not the whole world, but still people will want to know what’s going on.

RICE Royal, RICE!!! Poor little knee. Guess this means you don’t want the run the 4 mile race with me this weekend???

It’s been snowing/drizzling all morning here, 37 degrees outside, but feels like 30. A few minutes ago, Jayden looked out the window and saw this :

I hear, “Oh no, Mom. My slide. It’s all wet. I need to go outside and dry it.” Now, I do NOT want to go outside. It’s freezing out there, plus I was getting Willow down for a nap, so I said, ‘If you want to go outside, you need to take off your pj’s, get some pants, shirt, socks and shoes, and I’ll help you change your clothes and get a coat on” Jayden says, ‘OK!’ and runs off to his room. This is how he came out and he told me he was “ready to go outside!” I think those cheeks are gonna get a little cold.