Lily Pretty Lily

Well, after much anticipation for the big event, Lily Sayuri Tsukioka was finally born on April 1 at 7:40 pm. That afternoon I started having contractions around 1:30, and they were powerful enough to wake me up from my nap, so I knew something different was going on. Koichi and I stayed pretty calm and collected throughout most of the labor. Koichi got last minute things packed up while I paced back and forth in the apartment trying to remember my Lamaze breathing techniques.

When we got to the hospital I was taken to an observation room where the nurse on duty checked out my contractions and the baby's hearbeat using monitors strapped to my bulging belly. The nurse said I was the calmest new mother she had ever seen. Kudos to me! It didn't last long though. Not long later the nurse saw that the baby's hearbeat had dropped dramatically and she called in a bunch of other nurses and the Dr. to come take a look at me. The Dr. broke my "bag of waters" (the sack of amniotic fluid), which had been cushioning me from the full brunt of the contractions, and I lost it. Obviously something was wrong with the baby, I couldn't see Koichi anymore because he had been pushed out of the way by a nurse putting an IV in my arm, and I was in heckovalotta pain now. It wasn't long before I was begging for an epidural. But I got something even better... a spinal block.

When the Dr. broke my water, she noticed that the fluid was green which meant that the baby had pooed inside, and there was a possibility that she would aspirate the meconium (meaning she would breathe in the poo) which is not only gross, but very dangerous for the baby. So, she told me it would be necessary to do an emergency c-section, which I was all for by this time ("Get this thing out of me now and stop me from hurting!" was what I was thinking).

Well, after being wheeled to the surgical room for cesarian deliveries, the anesthesiologist made me sit up on a narrow metal bed, bend over, flex my back like a cat, and try to not move... all while still having very painful contractions. I think I said some not very nice words to him, I can't remember. What I do remember is that by the time I was laying back on the metal bed, I could no longer feel my toes, legs, belly, and most of my chest. Nor could I feel the pain. The anethesiologist became my best friend after that.

It wasn't long before the Dr. got down to business, Koichi was let into the room and sat down by my head and we waited for the long-anticipated sound of our baby's voice. At precisely 7:40 pm Mountain Time, we heard Lily make her first yelp this side of the womb. Evidently, not that I could see anything, she was covered in meconium and was whisked off to a corner by some nurses to be cleaned up. Koichi was allowed to go over there and watch the messy event. A few minutes later the head nurse brought Lily over to me and explained that she was having trouble breathing because she had aspirated meconium and it was in her lungs and stomach, but not to worry because it was not unusual for this to happen.

After being stapled together, spending some time shivering in the recovery room (a side effect of the spinal block I was told), I finally found myself in my post-pardum room around midnight. It wasn't much later when the head nurse from the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) and a baby specialist came to talk to me and Koichi. They said that Lily was not doing as well as they would like, and had breathed in a lot of meconium and was a very sick little girl. There was a possibility that she would need to be transferred to another hospital in town that had a more powerful respirator and a special kind of gas called Nitric Oxide that would help Lily breathe better. At that time they were still waiting and watching, but a few hours later they were back and said it was imperitive that Lily be transferred to the other hospital's NICU. Since I had only briefly seen my daughter before she was taken away after her delivery, I asked if I could go down to the NICU and see her before she was transferred. Someone brought a wheelchair, and it wasn't easy or pretty watching me get into it, but into I got, and headed out to meet my daughter.

Lily was on a respirator and was very, very ill. The nurse who was watching over her said she was having difficulty with any stimulus, so the lightes were all turned down, everyone spoke in hushed tones, and no one was touching her. It broke my heart. The baby specialist doctor came to talke to me and Koichi about Lily's transfer and asked if we had any questions. There was one question that was buring on my heart, but I couldn't bear to say it out loud...instead, I asked, "What is the recovery rate for babies in this condition?" I was relieved to hear her say that 90% of babies with meconium aspiration have full recoveries, but it was still scary to see my daughter hooked up to a bunch of machines.

An ambulance team from the other hospital arrived and brought in a special guerney with a ventilator attached to it to transport Lily. When they got her all ready to be lifted onto the guerney, they allowed me to hold her for about a minute before she had to go. I couldn't believe this was all happening. I was in a kind of shock about it all....it certainly was not the experience I had been looking forward to when I thought about giving birth and holding my daughter for the first time.

Monday morning I met another OB from my Dr.'s office and he said that because of the special circumstances with Lily being at the other hospital, if I was up to it I would be allowed a *pass* to leave the hospital I was at and go visit Lily. I had to be able to get into a wheel chair, walk a few steps, and pee on my own...those were the conditions. I had a lot of work to do, so I called in my nurse and after she removed the catheder I made my first attempt to use the restroom. I was determined to make my bladder do its job. It had other things in mind however, and try as hard as I could, it would not release an ever-growing need to pee. I tried so hard in fact, that I started getting dizzy and lightheaded and had to call in for the nurse to help me back to bed. It took 4 nurses though because I was ready to pass out. My nurse was not pleased with me and after that I was not allowed to get out of bed without a nurse beside me. A few hours later the need to *go* was even more pressing so I thought I surely would be able to produce something. Alas, nothing... A few hours later and I was in actual pain from an over-full bladder. I was given the choice to try the restroom again or have the catheder put back in, I chose the latter and was never so relieved (quite literally!) as then. Even though I wasn't able to pass the pee on my own test, I was still allowed to go visit Lily, which I was very grateful to do.


Koichi drove us over to the other hospital and though I was quite doped up on percoset, I was so excited to see my little girl. I burst into tears though when I finally saw her hooked up to huge machines. She was also drugged, knocked out so she wouldn't feel any pain from the meconium or the ventilator. It would be another 5 days before Koichi and I would see her look at us for the first time. We were blessed that day to have a very compassionate and thoughtful nurse who took a great deal of time to tell us everything she could about Lily and her condition. She was very encouraging and just what I needed to get through that day.

The next day I was released from the hospital, less than 48 hours after having major abdominal surgery so that I could visit Lily at will. That week went by in a blur as I worked on healing, walking, visiting Lily, and learning to use a breast pump. Koichi did a lot to take care of me, and I spent a lot of time resting and trying to get better. We saw small improvements in Lily, but nothing major until Saturday, 7 days after she had been born. Lily finally opened her eyes for us and looked at me and her daddy for about 15 minutes. We could not believe it! After days and days of fear and crying, it was so encouraging to see her eyes, even though she was still connected to all those machines.

The next day, Easter (or Pascha as we call it in my church), we saw a miracle!

When we came to the NICU Lily was no longer on the big huge ventilator or the Nitrous Oxide. She was well enough to be put on a smaller ventilator, and even better...I could finally hold her! She woke up and I held her for an hour. It was the sweetest feeling. Lily's eyes were open and we just stared at each other. Father Anthony, the priest from my church came by to pray over her and give her an 8th day of life blessing, and it was all so very cool.

Lily continued to improve the 2nd week as well, and we marked such milestones as coming off her medications one-by-one, coming off the ventilator for good and breathing on her own, and being fed milk through a feeding tube. I was allowed to hold her everyday now, and even made Koichi sit down and hold her even though it was scary for him with her still attached to a lot of tubes and wires.

The second week turned into a 3rd as she continued her recovery, and Lily kept getting better and better. We worked on bottle feedings as well as attempting to nurse, changing her diapers and clothes, and just getting to know her better. Finally, exactly 3 weeks after she was born, she was able to come home. Though she is still on oxygen and has one medication given to her in a breathing treatment, she is a completely different baby than when I first held her in my arms. She cries, cooes, smiles, makes the goofiest faces, and does it all as a healthy baby now.

She's 4 weeks old today, and though we've only had her home for a week, it's been one of the best weeks of our lives. I'm looking forward to the day when she won't need the oxygen anymore, but I hope to never forget how sick she was...I don't ever want to take her for granted.

New Camera

The camera I used to take the pictures at today's baby shower can be found here. It is way cool, and very easy to use. Koichi and I had a great time using it to take both pictures and video at the party today.

Baby Shower Numero Dos!

Today was my second baby shower, thrown by 2 of my good friends at the school I work at. They threw a "family shower" for me so that kids and dads could be a part of the fun and festivities. It was really nice. We had a big brunch, and I brought some onigiri (Japanese rice balls) and some little Japanese snack nuts to share. I was impressed by the few people who tried the rice balls. More were willing to try the nuts, except the ones with squid flavor. Those aren't my favorite either.


We got some more very cool stuff. Here's a diaper cake made by my friend, Tracy, who threw the shower.

















Also, we got some more baby clothes for little Lily. Boy, I really hope she is definitely a girl, because otherwise we're going to have a very pink-dressed boy!

Our biggest surprise was a gift from everyone. They went in and got the car seat/stroller travel system that we registered for. We were blown away! I really, really was not expecting that at all. Just yesterday I was bugging Koichi that we should just go ahead and buy it ourselves because I didn't want to get caught having the baby early and have no car seat. He told me to calm down, and good thing. He must be psychic, because here it is the next day and we have it! And it only took 3 guys to put it all together for us.

We really feel blessed to have so many great friends here who are so generous. And though I was super-duper excited about the car seat, I was just as excited about this....

ICE CREAM CAKE! YUM!!!!

Baby Shower Numero Uno

This past Tuesday the social committee at work threw a baby shower for me. It was hard to keep that a surprise since I'm the director of the social committee this year, but a good friend saved me the embarrassment of throwing myself my own baby shower. And even though I knew exactly what was going on, it was still a lot of fun. Koichi was even able to come and join in the festivities.

A good friend of mine, who is a parent of a student who was in the first grade last year, is incredibly talented at making cakes. She made this one for my party. It's in the shape of a baby rattle. Not only was it obnoxiously cute, it was muy, muy tasty too!





Baby girl clothes are SO CUTE! Here's me trying some of them on Lily, well, as best as I could anyway.

I got some of the cutest, most adorable stuff I have ever seen. When we got home Koichi pulled it all out onto the couch to take a picture of all of Lily's loot. I'd say that's a pretty good start. She's already spoiled and she isn't even out of the womb yet!

Did you see that I was holding Skippyjon? He seemed to be a bit jealous of all the stuff that was not for him. Or else he was scared of it. It's hard to tell with him sometimes.

But he need not be jealous! He got to try on Lily's Halloween costumes that were given to me by the same parent who made the baby shower cake. Of course you know by now that this was Koichi's doing. I had nothing to do with it. I just took the pictures to remember the occassion.

Stay tuned for the next round of baby shower pictures! Tomorrow we have another baby shower that is being hosted by friends of mine from work. It's going to be a family shower with kids and dads, and should be a lot of fun. Koichi and I bought a new digital camera today that is waaaaaaaaaaay cool, so we'll get to put some more high-quality photos on here soon. Woo hoo!

Long Overdue Blog

Okay, okay, okay. I know I haven't added anything to my blog since December. Yes, I am a very, very naughty girl. But I'm here now late on a Saturday night and since I'm not completely exhausted already I thought I would take a few moments and share some photos with you. Don't you feel special? You should.

First up: Pregnancy pics!

Here's a couple from about a month and a half ago, I think. I kinda forgot when they were taken...

Not only was my belly becoming more rotund, but so was my butt! Aaack! By this time I was starting to live in my pregnacy jeans which I am casually sporting here. Unfortunately, I only have 2 pair of jeans, and the next pair are not quite as comfortable, but I took a picture in them just for you, gentle reader.

Can you see a difference in belly circumference? I wasn't too happy about having these pictures taken this day. I wasn't exactly dressed to impress, and I hadn't done anything with my hair or makeup. The TV doesn't add to the picture at all either. Oh well. Koichi wanted to take these to send to his parents to show them how big my belly has become. Koichi's sister mentioned that I might want to take a picture of my naked belly, sans shirt as a keepsake of this special time. I think I laughed so hard I peed my pants.

Well, from those last two pictures you can see my new hair do, though I think this picture looks a little bit better.

I like how it curls out. It's kicky! I feel so hip when I actually get up early enough to make it look nice. That's the thing about short hair. It can be really cute, but it takes a lot more effort than long hair. I like it though. Boy my face looks round. I've got baby weight everywhere!!

Next up, baby shower pics!

Snow Dog

Skippyjon loves the snow and we got a fair share of it this week. Koichi took some pic's while taking Skippyjon out for a walk.

After coming in from the walk, Koichi cleans him up and dries him off. Skippyjon loves this and spreads out in relaxation. He's such a goofy dog.

Now he's ready for some cocoa and cookies.

Pregnancy Pictures Take II

Just about the coolest job in the world has to be that of a sonographer, the person who runs the ultrasound machine. The sonographer who took these pictures was so nice to us. She spent extra time with us because Koichi and I really wanted to know the baby's gender, and the baby was being a little on the modest side at the time. However, she gave us a 90% guestimate that we are having a baby girl! I was flabbergasted. I really thought we were going to have a boy. I had 2 previous dreams that our baby was a boy, so it took me a little while to get my mind around the thought of having a little girl. But now I am all girl-power and super excited to meet little Miss T in a few short months. It's hard to believe, but she is over half baked. As of tomorrow I will be 22 weeks pregnant and in the beginning of my 6th month. Just 4 more months before her big arrival.

(Here's the butt shot! Imagine you're holding her over your head, her legs swing up, and oops, no panties! Her feet are at the top, and she's giving you the full moon.)

Koichi and I went through scores of names before we got the top 10 list. And I mean literally scores of names! We each made our own list of names we liked and Koichi's was about 500 names long (for both boys and girls). It was pretty agonizing for him to cut some of them out, but at last, we narrowed it down. The front-runner right now, and I think probably the winner if our baby is indeed a girl, is Lily. We haven't figured out a middle name for her yet. We're still working on that. She's going to get a Japanese middle name and we have a few that we like, but we're still searching for that one perfect name.

The coolest thing to date, well, the second coolest thing because the absolute coolest was seeing her on the sonogram monitor. That was spectacular! But the second coolest thing about being pregnant is feeling her move. For the last 6 weeks I have been somewhat obsessed about feeling something, anything happen in there. Finally, on Thanksgiving night I am positive that I felt her give me a good kick. It was pretty cool. For the last week or so I thought I had maybe felt some movement in there, but I wasn't sure if it was her or just me being gassy, but the other night it was definitely not the gas. So now I am really starting to feel pregnant with the baby moving, and having a name picked out, not to mention the backaches and sore feet that I'm getting everytime I stand up for more than 15 minutes.

Here's some more picks of our little rice ball cooking away!

This is a really good one! You can really see her head, her right arm and fingers, and her torso. She has her mouth open (that big dark spot next to the word "mouth") and it looks like she's saying Konnichiwa!

Here's another pretty good one. She has her arm up by her head like she's waving Hello to us!

Halloween Fun

Every year the school I teach at has an afternoon of Halloween fun for the kids. They get to bring their costumes to school and we have a parade, and then a big party in the classroom. This year the other 1st grade teachers and I decided to dress up. We were "Girls Who Just Wanna Have Fun" and dressed in 80's style clothes and makeup. It was a lot of fun to get my bangs to stand up 6 inches tall and wear blue eyeliner again. Koichi came to watch and help out in the classroom and ended up holding baby Jacob, one of my coworkers' kids. He was dressed up as a pea in a pod. Koichi said he was practicing for next year when he gets to dress up and carry around his own kid. I think this was the first time he's ever carried around a baby. He did pretty good, but was all too willing to hand him off when the first offer came to take the baby. He's going to make a great dad someday soon.

Pregnancy Pictures

Uggh, I hate showing these because not only do I not look pregnant in my eyes, but I look very fat and the whole thing makes my skin itch. However, after much arm twisting by my good, persuasive, half-Italian mafia friend, Grace, I have decided to make these pictures public. If you laugh, I have connections to someone who can break your kneecaps.


The first one here is when I was probably about 2 months pregnant or so. No, that bump is not the baby, it's the previous night's feticcini alfredo.

Koichi made me tuck in my shirt. THAT will NEVER be happening again.

Here's the picture we took just yesterday. Shall we see if there is any difference? Actually, I put my arm underneath my boobs to make sure you could see the difference because as I mentioned before, I will NEVER be tucking my shirt in again.

So that's what I look like after 4 months of pregnancy. Oh, and as of today I am offically 18 weeks pregnant. This baby is pretty much half-baked! Yikes!! Right now it's pretty easy to take care of. Discipline, feeding, changing are all easy as can be while the baby is in utero. What am I going to do when it finally makes its appearance??? Ack! I try not to think about that too much because I'm afraid I'll start to hyperventilate or break out in hives or something. The same thing happens when I try to think of where this little thing is going to sleep. The other night I was mentally rearranging furniture in my bedroom, and thinking "Well, if the nightstand got put behind the bed (yes, I won't really be able to use it, but it just holds my clock anyways), and the CD case got put to the other side of the room (so what if Koichi can't open the closet door all the way, I'm ready to sacrifice my nightstand, he should be able to help out too), then we could put either a bassinet next to my side of the bed or a very small crib." I started breaking out in sweats, so I had to stop thinking about it.

Though I'm already experiencing post-tramatic stress disorder regarding the birth and raising of this child, I am on the other hand eagerly antipating being able to feel some kicks or just general movement in there. Right now if I concentrate really hard......I can feel a lot of gas, and that's about it. This morning I thought I felt something, but I'm not sure if it was an actual baby movement or me hiccuping. By the end of November I should be able to feel quite a bit, and then I'll probably be begging the kid to go to sleep and quit jumping on my bladder (though s/he's already making me go ALL THE TIME as it is).

Here's what Baby Tsukioka may already be doing while biding time in the womb....

Meet Little T in 2D!

Thursday afternoon I had my first sonogram and here a couple of pictures we got to take home. Little T was pretty genki (active), so it was hard to get a good picture at first.

Koichi thinks this one looks like Jar Jar Binks. He's convinced our child has either eyes that bug out of its head or antenna. This picture wasn't too helpful.

Here's one that looks a little better.

If you squint just right you can see her/his (still to be determined) head to the left. S/he's laying on her/his side. It looks like her/his mouth is open and is saying *hello*.

It was a lot easier to make these pictures out when we could see the baby moving on the ultrasound monitor. Now that we have these 2 dimentional pictures, it just looks like a big ol' blob of white and black. We have 2 more pictures and I'll post them as soon as I can. We took the pictures that the sonographer gave us and went to a camera store to have them scanned and then burned onto a CD. Unfortunately they really screwed up our order and we only got these 2 so far. They're fixing their mistake and I should be able to get a new and improved CD with the missing pictures tomorrow. I'll post them as soon as I can.

The Dr. said everything looks good. My bloodwork came back and everything was good and happy. The baby looks fine, thought according to the ultrasound he's 9 days bigger than my calculations put him. Doc thinks he's probably just a tall baby, and it's nothing to worry about. If s/he is 9 days older than we think, s/he'll probably arrive a week earlier than our given due date, and that may be right on my birthday. That would be cool.

In 4 weeks I go back to see Doc for my monthly check up, and in 6 weeks I go back for my second sonogram to check internal organs. If the baby cooperates, we will hopefully be able to find out the baby's gender at that time. We're really looking forward to that.

Gotta go. Blog more later!

Skippyjon, the Multi-Faceted Dog of Mystery

Taking a nap with his favorite Star Wars pillow

Wearing his favorite T-shirt

Ready for a night of syling on the town

Making adjustments and alterations for his Halloween costume....and looking forward to a night of barking, barking, barking

Looking good. Looking darn good.

1st OBGYN appointment

This last Tuesday I met my OB/GYN for the first of many doctor's appointments to come. Koichi came with me, and we were both pretty anxious and nervous about the whole thing, but it turned out to be relatively painless. Actually, there was some pain, but it's over with so now I'm trying to repress it.

As of today, I am 9 weeks and 5 days pregnant, and my baby looks something like this...

which isn't all that different than last week, though s/he's grown to the size of a medium olive. The Dr. asked us to schedule another appointment for a sonogram in 4 weeks and we should be able to hear the heartbeat as well. We're pretty excited about that.

Koichi has been having me go through a big baby name book at an almost feverish pace. We're up to M's for both boys and girls, and when we find a name he likes we put a K by it, or a D if I like it. The hard part is finding names that are bestowed with both a K and a D. They are few and far between. The goal is to find a few names we really like in both genders before we find out the sex of the baby in November (God willing).

When we get our sonogram pictures I'll make sure to post them for all to see.

Again, monetary gifts and presents are always accepted! Support the Little T college fund!! :O)

Introducing the Newest Tsukioka Family Member! (Take 2!)

So as it turns out, there is a new Tsukioka family member to introduce! As my brother, Dwain, said, we have a Japanese hybrid on order. I'm pregnant, and have been now for about 8 weeks. So as of now, Little T (the baby's name as of right now), looks something like this...

Right now it looks like a little alien, but he/she is quickly developing into a more human looking baby. Koichi and I are really excited, but of course we're nervous too. All the big questions are floating around: Will we make good parents? Where are going to get the money for ______ (formulae, diapers, college, etc.)? Will the baby make it through all 9 months? Right now that's the biggest question on my mind.

I happened to have a friend at work, a fellow teacher, who became pregnant nearly the same time that I did. That was really exciting for me because she's already had one baby, so she'd been through this before and knew what to expect so I could ask her all sorts of questions. Just this past week though, she lost the baby. She's doing really well, and I'm encouraged by her resilience, but in the back of my mind I'm thinking, Will that happen to me too? But I'm trying to not think about that too much, because even if it does happen, there's nothing I can do to stop it. I have to trust that God knows what He is doing, even if he takes this little one away from us.

I get a lot of the "So how are you feeling?" question these days. And today seems to be a good day, which would make 3 good days in a row for me, a personal best for the past 2 weeks. At first, I was just tired...all the time. And a little crampy. Now the crampiness is gone, the tiredness seems to be here to stay, and added to that is dizziness and blechy nausea that seems to be with me all the time. But right now is a good day, and I don't feel to nauseous.

Koichi is being an excellent daddy already. He's very concerned about the nutrition level of my diet. He asked his mom to send him a book on pregnancy from Japan so he could understand it more in depth. I was pretty impressed by that. But now he keeps trying to get me to eat liver and sea kelp. I stand firm in my convictions that neither of those are meant to be consumed. He is doing a great job though, and has been very considerate of me and my food cravings so far. Actually, I only had one craving that I know of, I had the strongest desire for fried chicken from KFC. For 2 days that's all I could think about. Koichi let me go and get 1 piece of fried chicken, and that really seemed to satisfy the craving. That was a weird craving for me, because I don't usually like fried chicken all that much. Anyway, I'm looking forward to craving brownies and ice cream....mmmmm, maybe I already am.

Well, that's it for now. I go in to see my OB/GYN in a few weeks for my first Dr.'s appointment. I think Koichi is going to try to go with me even though it's right in the middle of his sleeping time. I'm looking forward to it. I'll let you know what the Dr. says and how things are going a little later on.

(If you would like to make a donation to the Baby Tsukioka fund, checks, money orders and cash can be sent directly to me. Presents of any sort are always welcome.) :O)

Life is Short

Yesterday I went to a "Celebration of Life" memorial service for an 18 year-old girl from the school district I work in, who died last weekend from injuries sustained in a very bad car crash. It was heartbreaking to be there and feel the pain of her family, friends, and teachers. This year was going to be her Senior year, she was a valued member of the basketball team, the volleyball team, and the choir. She had a lot to look forward to, and now it's all gone. As I was walking to my car after the service ended, I thought, "Dying is easy, Living is so hard."

I couldn't help but think of all the time I've wasted doing stupid stuff. Every fight I've ever had with my husband, my family, my friends...all of that was wasted time. Everytime I've vegged out in front of the TV instead of doing something productive or helpful has been wasted time. Every time I've put something off until tomorrow, and then the next day, has been wasted, wasted time. Life is short. I don't want to waste any of it. When I die, I want to leave behind more than an empty bag of chips and an impression of my butt on the couch.

Introducing the Newest Tsukioka Family Member!

No, I'm not pregnant. Not yet, anyway, but that's another blog entry for the future.

While I was in Kansas City (I'm back in Colorado Springs now, by the way. Got home on Tuesday morning, and still feel like I have jet lag...weird) Koichi endured the tragedy of the untimely death of our beloved clown fish, Juan. Juan was a part of our family for the past 2 years, and my husband had grown quite fond of him. Koichi was pretty depressed when Juan passed away. It was even worse since he was all alone with me in Kansas City. My family members were all sorry to hear of Juan's passing, and my sister-in-law, Jen, astutely pointed out that Koichi was sorely in need of a dog. Well, we followed her advice.

We weren't planning on getting a dog. It just kinda happened. It was canine destiny. On Tuesday after I returned to Colorado we went out to a fish store and were discussing what kind of new fish we would like to get. There were some nice fish, but we didn't get any that night. In passing, I said maybe we should get a dog. Koichi has always wanted a dog, and before the fish, he used to beg me to get one. My comment caused us to make an impromtu trip to the humane society on Wednesday afternoon. Perhaps we were feeling maternal and paternal, since we had just come from a visit to the hospital to see a friend and her newborn baby (who is absolutely the cutest newborn baby I have ever seen....in person). When we got the shelter we looked at all the animals, and ended up looking at the dogs, passing from one to the other. They were cute, but none really caught our eye. Until we happened on Skippyjon. He was in a pen with 3 other smallish dogs who were vying for our attention. Skippyjon was sitting calmly and quitely in the corner, not even barking though his pen-mates were yapping their heads off at us. He just looked at us with his beautiful brown eyes, and we could tell he was saying "Hey, don't go. I think I love you two." We moved on down the row, but we came back to look at Skippyjon at least 5 more times, and then decided to go ahead and meet him.



We had to fill out a form and wait 15 minutes before we were led by a shelter volunteer to a little room where she left us to go get Skippyjon. We'd recieved an information sheet on him and had found out that he had been brought to the shelter only the day before by his former owners who could no longer take care of him. He was curious and friendly when we met, and he didn't make a single sound. It was obvious he was nervous, because he was shaking like a leaf, but after a few minutes he calmed down a bit and came over to meet us. Koichi and I fell in love. Deep, deep love. Within 20 minutes we knew we wanted to make him part of our family.

So we filled out the adoption forms, paid the $98 fee, and made a mad dash to PetsMart and Wal-Mart for supplies while they held him for us. A couple hours and a hundred dollars later we had all we needed to get Skippyjon settled into our home for the first few days: a cage to crate train him in, food, dishes, a brush and shampoo. (Koichi wanted to take him straight to a groomer, but they won't see him until after he has his rabies shots updated. My husband is so Japanese sometimes, especially when it comes to keeping the house clean. But since the groomer couldn't take him, we decided to give him a bath ourselves.)

Koichi rode with Skippyjon in the back seat on the way home and we had a great time getting to know each other while we showed him the apartment and his little room in the crate. Then it was time to brush him and get as much loose hair off as we could before the bath. We still ended up having a tub full of hair, but we were happy to have a clean, minty-fresh pooch. And what a great pooch Skippyjon was! Through all the brushing and the bath, Skippyjon never made a peep. Not a single yip or bark. And he just stood there and let us handle him with no problem; no squirming or biting. We were really amazed.

We were also happy to find out the Skippyjon is a pretty smart dog. He already knows a few commands such as Sit, Stay and No. We're working on Down and Shake right now, as well as going potty in the right place. Found a couple of surprises this morning. Icky.

Oh, by the way, Skippyjon is a Schipperke mixed-breed. (That's pronounced SKIP-er-kee....it took me two days to be able to remember it.) And though he didn't actually come with the name, Skippyjon, he has already learned it, and at least turns his head to look at me when I say it, and usually comes when I call his name. His former name was a little bland for our tastes...Oliver. We didn't think he looked like an Oliver. We thought he looked more like a Skippyjon. He seems to think so too.

Friday morning we are going to the vet for his first well-visit, complements of the Pikes Peak Humane Society. Then it's off to PetsMart to get him his own collar and a training leash. We're so glad Skippyjon has become part of our family. He has a great personality, and though he's sometimes very energetic, he's very gentle and quiet. A great apartment dog.

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round....most of the time

So, circumstances come up and things change. Such is life.

This last week my mom went to the hospital to have a few tests done on her heart to search for blockage. Heart disease seems to run rampant in my family. One grandfather died from it, both of my parents have had heart attacks, one stroke and now my mom was finding out more bad news. Turns out that 3 of her valves had 4 blockages in them and the doctor recommended that she have immediate bypass surgery. (And by immediate, I mean the next day.) The next morning the surgery went well, but the doctor evidently found more to be concerned about and her triple bypass turned into a 5-way bypass heart surgery.

My husband and I decided that I needed to come home and be with my family during this time. So, due to rising airline costs and the thought that Kansas City isn't all that far from Colorado Springs, I decided to give the Greyhound bus a try and ride my way across the Midwest. Wow. That was an experience.

I left Colorado Springs on Thursday evening around 7:45 and took the bus to Denver. This 1.5 hour ride was pretty nice. The bus was pretty full, so I sat next to an unassuming woman who turned out to be headed to Denver to take care of her sick grandkids. The bus ride was pretty uneventful except for the incredibly beautiful sunset over the mountains in the west. God is an awesome artist.

In Denver I had to transfer buses to go east to Kansas City. When I got there, the line was already long and winding its way through the terminal. I got in line and waited for the doors to open when our coach arrived. At 10:15 it came, and as I slowly made my way to front, pushing luggage along the floor (which was sticky with some suspicious looking substance), I was beginning to wonder if everyone was going to make it on the bus. There seemed to be about 50 people in front of me, and by this time, there seemed to be about just as many in line behind me. Finally I made my way to the front of the line and the ticket taker (which I'm pretty sure was her official job title, by the way), stopped me. She and bus driver conferred over the number of passengers and decided that the bus was indeed filled to capacity. There I was at the front of the line and looked like I was going to be stuck there for quite some time!

But just as I was about to lose hope, another bus pulled in and I got first pick of the seats. Having sat near the rear of previous bus, and in too close proximity to the lavoratory and its odiforous aromas, I decided to take one of the front seats on this new bus. This bus was filled to the brim with all sorts of people. I ended up partnered with a nice teenager who was kind enough to help me get my bags out of the overhead compartment, and let me off the bus to use the bathroom during our 2 scheduled breaks. I thought sitting next to the window would be a good idea as I could lean against it and use my teddy bear as a pillow. Turns out that there is absolutely NO leg room next to the window, so I had to keep my knees bent the entire time which lead to very swollen ankles by the time I arrived in Kansas City. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Our first stop was in the Kansas town of Colby. Not too much happening in Colby at 3:00 am. However, the McDonald's was kind enough to be open and allow us to use its restrooms and get a little food. A few hours later we pulled into the bustling metropolis of Salina, Kansas. We pulled into a gas station/truck stop at 6:30, and our travel weary bus driver said that a replacement driver would be arriving shortly and the bus would pull out at 7:05. I quickly made use of the facilities and bought a Big Gulp for the road. Being terribly exhausted I fell asleep on the bus while awaiting its immanent departure. At 7:30 I woke up to find that not only was the bus not moving, it had not moved, and did not seem to be moving anytime soon. Several passengers were expressing concern for the arrival of the new bus driver, who by this time was a half hour late. Some went inside to look for him and to consult with the store attendants at the gas station/Salina bus stop. The gas station attendants didn't have a clue to the whereabouts of the new bus driver, and it turned out that the previous bus driver had taken off to get some much needed rest, but had not waited to make sure a new driver arrived. We were stranded. In Salina. Kansas.

Several passengers used their handy dandy cell phones to call the Greyhound bus line to express their dismay and to ask where the heck our driver was. The word finally got around that there had been a scheduling mix-up and a driver had not been scheduled to drive out of Salina for some unknown reason. Another driver was called, though he was in Kansas City and would have to drive the 3 hours out to get us, pick us up, and driver us back.

Several hours, and 3 magazine readings later, he finally showed up, ate some lunch, and sent out a call that the bus would be leaving at 11:00...about 10 minutes after we had expected to be arriving in Kansas City. A general roar of applause went up when the doors to the bus closed and the wheels started to turn east. I finally got in at 2:30 in the afternoon, a mere 19 hours after I left Colorado Springs. I tried not to think about the fact that I could have driven to Kansas City and back in that time, and just be appreciative to be there.

So, sometimes the wheels on the bus go round and round. And sometimes they take unplanned pit stops for 4 hours. You never can tell.

I sure am glad that I was able to come to Kansas City though and see my family. The last time I saw everyone was for Christmas, and that was a VERY short time together. My husband is so good to me and is staying at home by himself in Colorado Springs. I miss him, but it's good to see my mom and the rest of my family. She's doing well. The surgery went fine, and she's gaining a little more strength everyday. In fact, I'm supposed to go to the hospital and see her bright and early tomorrow morning, so I should get to bed.