The Dread....

4 years ago, we thought the problems with Mya's hips were over. However, we go in this Tuesday for a repeat of the cast and a much more invasive surgery. Mya has selected a purple cast and she has had a tour of the hospital. She thinks she knows what is going to happen, but she has no idea....
When our baby Mya was only 3 months old, we had to take her in for surgery on her hips. The doctors take your smiling, unassuming, trusting baby away from you - they put her under, take her legs and bend them all around in the worst positions, cast them, and hand her back to wake up screaming the worst scream you could imagine. I will never forget that moment, and it is because of that I have the worst feeling of dread for this Tuesday. For it is in that moment, your baby wakes up and looks at you, with that look of horror...."how could you let this happen to me?" The dread....

LETTERS FROM STEVO...Response to the recent allegations

So, it appears my beloved wife has decided to throw me under the bus!?! I will admit...guilty as charged!!! But I help around the house! I do all of the...ahem...outside work. For example, mowing the lawn. It's not my fault the grass dies during the winter! I pull the weeds (so they don't grow during the winter...again, not my fault). I clean up after Smokey, clean out the garage, hang the Christmas lights, watch the automated sprinklers water the grass (tough job but somebody's got to do it). And then there's the chore of cleaning Amy's car...or as I like to refer to it "pamper the Durango day." This entails an oil change, car wash and then the big chore...cleaning out the inside! Sometimes I wonder if Amy's performing a scientific experiment in there with the different organisms that are growing. I'm sure she's inadvertantly created a new species of some sort. There are two factors that have caused this. 1.) She is a Carlson...notorious for cars that have messy interiors. If you are a Carlson or a friend of a Carlson reading this, you know exactly what I'm talking about! 2.) She is lugging around two kids under the age of 5 who like to eat, drink and be merry while riding in the back seat. I'll cut her some slack for reason #2 since that is partly my fault.

Now let's move to the next topic, the inside of the house. I clean the bathrooms, do some of the laundry, dishes, bathrooms, watch TV, bathrooms, play video games, watch Amy do chores, did I mention I do the bathrooms??? Some of my other inside chores include killing spiders since they are so intimidating to Amy, playing "Guitar Hero"...I'm getting pretty good, and cleaning diet Mountain Dews out of the fridge. Of course Amy always thinks I could be doing more around the house...I guess I could buy some Dr. Pepper and clean that out of the fridge too!

We have the kids trained on a few things as well. They love to do the dishes...though it mostly amounts to them getting water all over the place, but hey, I'm not complaining. They've also been taught to put their dishes in the sink when they're done and hang up their coats and put away their shoes when we come home. I hold them accountable by following up and pestering them until they do it. It drives them nuts but they do it.

In summary, let me just state for the record that I do chores too even if it involves staring blankly at Amy as she studiously "scrubs". She's got a tough job raising a husband and two kids who always want their mom to nurture them...apparently, I'm just not very "nurturing". On top of that, she works full-time at a high stress job. Don't ask me what she does, I just see her talking on the phone and emailing a lot.

Livin' with Stevo...

So, for years I have threatened my husband with a book called "Livin' with Stevo". Apparently he decided to take it into his hands to give you a glimpse of my life with him. :) Hopefully, you have all enjoyed the postings and insights he provides. He provides humor in my life everyday, and is truly my best friend. But he is all Guy. Burping, football loving, video gaming, loud music, weightlifting, football obsessed, snoring, sarcastic, "commentary collecting", football crazed, food loving, mountain dew drinking (yuck), Man. How is that for fluff (as he has accused me in his first blog!)? In honor of March, I have a great story to prove my point...

After Steffan was out of town for work all week and a guys night out, we started our Saturday morning. This includes the kids waking up at the first sight of sunshine, getting breakfast started, and trying to get all of the household things complete during our 1 day off from work during the week. After making breakfast, managing the kids, I started cleaning and scrubbing down the house - organizing, dusting, washing, laundry...I hate laundry. Steffan spends every Saturday morning talking to his Grandpa, which I think is great. I would never interrupt this time and I am happy to get to work without him. After his chat, he got on the computer. Again, I was literally scrubbing the house down...

I was trying to be patient (which everyone knows I am not!), but I knew he also had to teach a class on Sunday. So, I was happy to let him prepare. Or so I thought....

About 30 minutes in, he makes a phone call. Scrubbing away, I can hear the conversation begin.

" Hey Man." "Oh, Sorry, did I wake you up." "My kid wake up so early, we have been busy all morning already." "Can I get your email address?" "I am working on setting up the March Madness Office Pool".
Suddenly there was a halt to the scrubbing.....ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! I am in the same room, SCRUBBING!

All Guy.

I do appreciate Steffan taking over the blog for a few weeks. My life has been overly crazy since my last posting - 3 months ago! For those of you who don't know, I got a job promotion in January. I went from selling IBM software to my Clients, mostly over the phone - to working with Clients here in Denver, meeting them face to face. I do not have to travel into an office anymore, which is nice, but I had no idea how busy I would be. I am hoping things will fall into a rhythm and will slow down a little, but it is not likely in the near future. I have some highly visible accounts, and am working on some great deals. I love it! But it is really busy. :0)

We have Mya's surgery coming up on April 1, so I will be sure to update everyone on how things go.

LETTERS FROM STEVO...This Bud's for you!!!

This week, I want to introduce you to William Henderson Underwood III...or as we affectionately call him in these parts, "Bud." Bud is my maternal grandfather. He lives just outside Knoxville Tennessee on the shore of Douglas Lake not far from the Smokey Mountains.

Bud is a 78 year old retired wannabe oil tycoon who enjoys driving his pontoon boat all over the lake, football (specifically Tennessee Volunteer football), telling far-fetched stories and...dancing. That's right I said...dancing. He is a dancing queen! And yes, he LOVES Abba! Is this what I have to look forward to with old age??? He and his wife Char attend a weekly dancing class with other retirees and they have become quite good...or, Char makes him look good. Tango, fox trot, samba, you name it. He is a huge fan of "Dancing with the Stars." And he does listen to Abba...I'm not kidding. He's already told me that when we come out next time, he is going to bring his Abba CD on the boat and blast it as we traverse the lake on his mighty pontoon boat. I told him I'm jumping ship! We try to go out there every summer or two. He and I have a similar characteristic in that we both love to talk about history, sports, politics, current events, religion, philosophy, etc...this is shorthand for "we are both walking encyclopedias of useless information." We have no problem with sitting out in his front porch overlooking the lake with the Smokies in the background and solving the world's problems.

Anyway, he's led an interesting life. He played baseball for the Univ. of Tennessee. Ran his own oil drilling company in New Mexico. Back before my parents met, he hired and later fired my dad. He led a double life (he had two families). Bred, trained and showed German Shepards. As kids, he would give me and my brothers pointers on how to talk to the ladies. He would flirt with the cashiers at grocery stores to give us examples.

We talk every Saturday morning. Today, he told me about his new car...a Kia...KIA??? The most gutless, lemon cars on the planet??? What was he thinking? I can just picture him roaming the woods of east Tennessee in his Kia, blasting "Dancing Queen." My father-in-law Craig was at least man enough to buy a loaded Chrysler 300. Then Bud goes and buys a 4 cylinder Kia. Disappointing...but hey, that's my grandpa!