ON

Zoey said her first word today.  Maybe it is her third word.  She has been saying mamama and dadada for a couple of months now. But we have never really been sure if she knows the meaning or if they are just sounds like all the other googoo-gaga mumbo-jumbo.

"ON"

She said it for the first time after she had pulled all of her books off the shelf.  Tanner and I told her to put the books back on the shelf. When she put a book on the shelf, we were pleasantly surprised. We praised her and said "On. Yeah, put the book ON the shelf." So she continued stacking the books up on the shelf. With the placement of each new book, I would say, "on!"

After a couple of books on and off the shelf, she copied me, "on". It sounded like a coincidence. It could have just been another sound.  The n sound was not very distinct. She said it again though,  with the next book and the next. 

Cool, but then she lost interest in the books. I tagged the info in my brain to practice with her later - probably another day. 

It was somewhere around 10 minutes later when I was doing the dishes in the kitchen and I heard a little "clink" sound and that familiar, imperfect "on".  Tanner praised Zoey and then told me that she had put a toy on the dining chair as she said her first word in that adorable little voice! It was clear this time that she knew what she was doing. 

My First Garden

I have been wanting to grow a garden for the past couple of years now.  This is one of the reasons I wanted to buy a house so bad.  I was hoping for a yard of my own, because I thought it was necessary to have the long rows in the back to be able to have a garden at all.  When I started looking into the gardening process a couple months ago, a found a book about square foot gardening. In this book, Mel Bartholomew (weird that I had a friend in high school named Melanie Bartholomew) talks about a new method where you just plant in a 4ft x 4ft x 6in box. There are a ton of benefits; like little to no weeding, less space and seeds used, and not having to worry about the soil being too rocky or whatever. I am excited that even though we don't have the private yard I was hoping for, I can still have a garden. So we built the box (mine is 4'x2'), put the grid on, and transplanted some veggies.  I have absolutely no experience gardening, so I figured it might be easier to transplant this time instead of trying to start the seedlings.

There is still so much I don't know. I really have no clue what planting time is the best for each plant. We will see what survives. This time I planted a couple of tomatoes, a red, yellow, and orange bell pepper, and a couple of string beans. I am open to advice if anybody has any. 

We are also going to give composting a try. They say it is really easy, but I'm a little nervous about not having a bigger, private yard for this. I don't want it to stink really bad and be so close to us and the neighbors. I'll let you know how it all turns out. 

I almost forgot to add all the links that I have found helpful for my gardening. (mostly for my own benefit, but if you are interested...)

The All New Square Foot Gardening Book (word-for-word) http://books.google.com/books?id=Kvy1DZ6wjIkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=all+new+square+foot+gardening&hl=en#v=onepage&q=all%20new%20square%20foot%20gardening&f=false

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_foot_gardening

The Wealthy Earth (blog by someone who has been square foot gardening for years and years). http://thewealthyearth.com/

My Pinterest Garden Board http://www.pinterest.com/kassyccox/garden/

Migraines

Warning about a grim post.. No fun stories to follow. Mostly me just complaining. :) Read at your own risk.

Sometime in January of this year, I was diagnosed with a migraine. It was more intense than I knew migraines could be. I had always thought that they were just seriously painful headaches, often associated with pain in the temples from light or noise or whatever. I have been lucky enough to have gone through my 21 years without having a real idea of what they can be. Well, in January, my luck must have ran out. I remember laying on my couch watching tv when my arm suddenly went numb like it had fallen asleep. It had no reason to be asleep though; I hadn't been putting any sort of pressure on it. A couple of minutes later, the numb, tingling feeling creeped like a sneaky mouse through each finger, back up my arm and into my face. I could feel it in my nose and tongue, like the little stars you see after you spin around and around. It was very bizarre and quite scary to be honest. I thought I was having a stroke. Tanner called 911 after I tried to say something to him and the words were incomprehensible because of my numb tongue. They sent the ambulance over, but the techs didn't see anything unusual with my vital signs or anything like that, so they left. I was feeling funny, but couldn't really explain why, so we thought we could wait it out. The numbness went away but then I couldn't form the sentences. I couldn't say what I was thinking. I told Tanner that I was going to go lay on the table. I meant couch, but could not say the dang word. I couldn't say anything right. It was really frustrating. Tanner ended up driving me to the hospital that night.  We had our sister-in-law stay at the house with Zoey until we got back.  The pain hit pretty soon after we got to the hospital and my memory is blurry from then on because of the amount of pain I was in. I mostly just remember that it was horrible. I couldn't express myself to tell people what I wanted. They all just looked at me like I was crazy. It was too long ago to go into details anyway.

It was quiet for a couple months after that. I had no other symptoms or pain or anything.  Last week though, I woke up at 5:30 with a tingly tongue. Slowly, the headache followed. It became worse and worse till I was so debilitated that I couldn't focus enough for Tanner to communicate with me. Every teeny light was so excruciating to see. It was very comparable to labor in pain levels. Tanner ended up staying home from work to take care of the baby while I slowly came back out of zombie land. Five hours later, the pain finally subsided to just a regular headache.  By bedtime, I was feeling better.  No fun, but the day was done.

Six days later, I woke up with tingly fingers again. This was yesterday.  Blah Blah Blah, lots of pain for hours on end; Husband missing another day of work; all the stuff I want to complain about, and here we are. I went to the doctor today and he have me some preventative meds and some other migraine relief just in case one happens to sneak past the prevention. I really hope they help.

Sometimes life is grim. I always catch myself wondering what I would do if I didn't live in this day and age where I can easily go to the doctor and get some drugs handed to me to make me feel better.  I am fortunate to have what I have and to live this life that I live.