Kari|Doyle

What happened to August?  It seemed to FLY by!  What did I do?

Kilian’s First Birthday Party

Kilian’s party was a wild success!  We had such great friends and family drive in from Minnesota, Sioux Falls, and of course, our wonderful family and friends here in town.  Kilian was in a great mood and enjoyed his birthday cake and all the attention!  Thanks to all who were able to come or were with us in spirit!

Whistle while you work!

I have a little joke I tell myself (and whoever asks what I do for a living…)  I say that I’m a stay-at-home mom with three jobs.  Not sure how THAT happened!  Anyway, I started at Rapid City Medical Center as a medical technologist.  I must admit that I did miss the lab work.  For the first time since I was a student, I got all excited about doing urine microscopics…sick.  I know.  Anyway, that has been going really well, and I’m getting excited about helping them install a new LIS (Laboratory Information System).  I’m also still working 8 hrs/wk from home for Young Life doing data entry and handling phone calls.  AND, I’m training to become a Zumba instructor at Stretch Studio.  That’s got to be the most FUN job I’ve ever had.  I’m not really getting paid yet, but I don’t even care!  I just love doing it, and am excited to start when the gals feel I’m ready! 

Hallo von Deutschland!

We have an exchange student that just moved in with us from Germany for the 2010-11 school year.  She’s been with us for about a week, and just started school today!  We spent last week touring, shopping, and getting her all ready for school!  She’s got quite a full load of classes (Teacher’s Aide in German 3/4, French 3/4, Anatomy & Physiology, Sociology, Psychology, Probability and Statistics, US History, and English 11)  She’s fitting in well with the family, and thanks to Skype, is able to keep in contact with her family from Germany.  I introduced her to s’mores…BIG SUCCESS!  

Random

Sean’s dad had a brief stay in the hospital due to low oxygen levels causing delerium.  We’re not sure how he’ll be in the future, but it was very scary for everyone!  Hopefully he recovers well!  Kilian also spent his first two days in daycare.  He won’t be going on a regular basis but its great that we have someone to backup Sean and his mom when they aren’t able to watch him.  He LOVED it, and Nicole (the daycare gal) said he was the easiest kiddo ever!  She told me I should go to work full time!  HA!  I think not.  He’s mine to love and enjoy most of the time!   Also, I rejoined Weight Watchers in an attempt to lose the last 5-10 lbs of baby weight.  *sigh*  Its slow going, but I think its coming off.  I’d LOVE to get down to 140….keep your fingers crossed!  Oh!  And we went to church for the first time in FOREVER last week.  We needed it and am going to try and keep it up!  Gotta keep that relationship going with the Big Guy upstairs!

Sean

Sean has LITERALLY been crazy!  He worked 70+ hrs of overtime last month!  Between Sturgis, K-9 demonstrations, and the PD being short-staffed…he has been working himself crazy!  On a good note, he did pass his drug certification with Magnum!  HOORAY!  Thank the Lord, he is taking several days off this week to spend with family and friends (his sister from Washington is in town with her three girls along with our German friends). 

Well, I think that’s enough!  Hope September is a little calmer…T-2 days until PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES ARE BACK!  (Just thought I’d mention it…)

Well, I’m officially a certified Zumba instructor!  Hooray!  I headed up to Eden Prairie, MN last weekend for an 8 hour day of dance, lecture, and mostly fun!  For those of you who have been living under a rock (hehee…j/k), Zumba is a latin-inspired aerobic dance workout that uses moves from salsa, cumbia, flamenco, merengue, reggaeton, hip-hop, and more!  Its just about the most fun you can have working up a sweat. (No comments as to what might be more fun. ) 

My trip up there was a blast!  I dropped Kilian off in Sioux Falls with my mom who watched him for the overnight, then I jetted off to Eden Prairie (suburb of Minneapolis).  As I was driving, I dropped the windows, cranked up the iPod with some pop songs from high school, and sang my heart out the whole way there!  (I was hoarse and my hair was AWESOME, but it was so fun it was worth it!)  I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Eden Prairie which is a REALLY nice hotel…I was pleased!  My friend, Carrie, stopped by and we got to visit for a little while before I needed to hit the sheets so I’d be well-rested for my class!  The next day, I headed over to Lifetime Fitness in Eden Prairie.  If you’ve never been to one of these, I recommend it!  I would LIVE at that gym if I could!  Wow.  Anyway, got myself registered, bought some SWEET green Zumba samba pants, and the class began.  We started right out with about a 60 min Zumba class.  The instructor was Joy Smith of Santa Cruz Dance Company in California.  She was great!  Very high energy, and had some great choreography ideas!  Apparently she used to be a professional dancer until she decided fitness and choreography were the way to make her career last!  Very cool.  Anyway, the day was spent learning the business side of being a dance instructor, attempting to sell us on a ZIN membership (Zumba Instructors Network) which sounds cool and may be something I sign up for later, and of course, learning and practicing Zumba!  We went over the four basic moves of Zumba: salsa, merengue, cumbia, and reggaeton.  We probably danced about 6 out of the 8 hours of the class.  I was literally exhausted when I piled into the car and headed back to Sioux Falls.  I may take the Zumba Basics Level 2 instuctor course which goes over flamenco, tango, belly dance, and samba) at some point, but we do mostly hip-hop intermixed with the other rhythms at Stretch Studio, so I may not.  Anyway, all in all, it was so much fun and I can’t wait to start teaching at the Studio in September!  If you’re interested, I’ll likely be teaching the Zumba Basics class and a burlesque technical class!  Should be fun!  Let me know if you’re interested in attending and I’ll get you more information!

August is going to be a big month for the Doyle household – more specifically…me.   Here’s a taste of what we have in store for August!

 - ZUMBA – I’m starting to co-teach a few classes at Stretch Studio (Zumba Basics @ 4:45 on Monday and Wednesday if you want to come!) and then in September will hopefully be on my own for instructing!  I’m heading up to Zumba Instructor Certification this week, and am SO excited to start teaching dance!  I’m lucky to be working for one of the hippest and best dance studios in town!  

 - Rapid City Medical Center Laboratory - I’ll be falling back to my college education and returning to the career of medical technology at RCMC for one day a week.  This should be nice to keep up on my skills as a lab tech while still having lots of time for my family and other interests!

 - Young Life – As wonderful as my time at Young Life has been, I’ll be cutting back due to other opportunities in my life presenting themselves.  I’ll work one day a week from home managing some of their data entry and handling phone calls/messages.  I haven’t totally firmed this up with Corey yet, but I remain hopeful that I can stay invovled with such a powerful ministry.  Plus – I can’t not work with Marci Eben any more!   That would be tragic.

 - Antoinette – Our dear friends, the Wahligs from Germany, are sending their oldest daughter to live with us for a year starting on August 22.  She’ll be attending Stevens High School, and we’ll be her host family for her time here.  I’ve just barely figured out how to parent my almost one year old, and now we’ll have a teenager to keep track of!  Wish us luck! 

 - Weddings – (Neither of these are in August, but they fall just either side of the month, so I’m counting it…)  My friends, Kaia and Tarin, are both getting married this summer and have asked me to be a part of both of their weddings!  I’m a bridesmaid in Kaia’s and personal attendent in Tarin’s.  I’m so excited!  I LOVE weddings (see earlier post) and I love that both of these gals have found the guy to spend their lives with! 

 - My baby boy is turning ONE.  It doesn’t seem possible.  Or right.  Or real.  But its true!  We’ll be having a party on August 7 (his actual birthday is August 6, but that’s when everyone could come…except for the Parrishs…and Marci….and Jo.  Sad.)  I’m looking forward to watching him attack his cake!

 Well, I think that’s enough!  As you can see, we’ll be quite busy!  Pray that I find time to sleep!

My little man....

Kilian had his first E.R. visit this week.  No, make that Kilian had his first TWO E.R. visits this week!  What started out a simple trip to Armour/Sioux Falls quickly turned into a week-long ordeal.  Here’s how it went down:

1. After getting to my dad’s house on Friday, Kilian starts rubbing his eyes and acting fussy (like he might be tired).  We persevere, and get him down for bed at a reasonable hour. 

2. He wakes up late (unusual) on Saturday morning with BLOODSHOT eyes, and a runny nose.  Very fussy.  I feed him, and after much deliberation, its off to Sanford Acute Care.  We are there when it opens and we are THIRD in line!

3. They decide its an allergic reaction of some sort (probably cat, but can’t say for sure) and prescribe him Benedryl (1/4 tsp of 12.5 mg/5 ml) and Vigamox (antibiotic drops) (Prescription count: 1) for his eyes to keep them from getting infected with all the rubbing he’s been doing. 

4. Take him back to my dad’s and let him hang out for a bit.  He’s a bit warm so we strip him down to his diaper.  Suddenly, we’re not in Kansas anymore.  He develops a red dot rash on his back (where he’s been laying on the floor) and starts having retractions (where his intercostal muscles between his ribs are sucking in because he’s not able to get air properly)

5. I scoop him up and a few things, and head to my mom’s who doesn’t own cats.  We give him a bath, wash all his clothes, and down for a nap.  He sleeps decently, and wakes up in good order…but is still breathing hard. 

6. I head to my dad’s to pick up the rest of our things and to spend a LITTLE time with them, since we didn’t get to stay long.  My mom calls 45 minutes later and says Kilian is breathing 60 breaths/min, and retracting worse.  Off to Sanford ER we go!

7. I beat my mom there and get him checked in.  When she arrives with Kilian, he’s VERY warm, and non-responsive in the back seat.  We called his name and tapped his face, but didn’t wake up until I drug him out of the car seat.  (Personal note here – this is the MOST SCARED I have EVER been!)

8.  The Sanford ER was GREAT!  I highly recommend if you have sick kids, TAKE THEM THERE!  They were on top of things and just great!  They did a chest xray (clear), CBC (elevated Eosinophils – indicative of an allergic reaction), and gave him an albuterol nebulizer and orapred (prednisone in dissolvable form) and tylenol for the fever.  Sent him home with a prescription for prednisolone (Prescription count: 2) and to keep him dosed with Benedryl.  After all was said and done, I had a much happier kiddo!  THANK YOU SANFORD!

9. Brought him back to Rapid City Sunday morning.  He did great and we followed up with Dr. Whitney at BH Peds.  He drew a Cat Allergy RAST Test.  Results to follow.  He also wrote a prescription for an Epi Pen Jr.  (Prescription count: 3) to keep on hand since his reaction was so severe.  He has me discontinue the prednisolone and Benedryl because he’s doing better.

10.  He starts coughing a little on Tuesday, but it seems fake.  Thursday, its flared up and is junky sounding.  I figured he had a pretty runny nose with his reaction, so he’s just trying to get rid of some of that.  I take him to YL and put him down for his nap.

11. I wake him up from his nap to find him breathing hard and wheezing.  I feed him and then have Chris listen to him to make sure I’m not crazy.  Chris agrees he sounds bad, and so I call Black Hills Peds.  Of COURSE Dr. Whitney is off on Thursday, so I ask if he can be seen by someone else.  The nurse is pretty rude and says something about how everyone is at lunch, but will 2:30 be acceptable to me?  I’m stressed out, Kilian is crying…I don’t need attitude.  I hung up, and called an ER doc friend of ours, and he says I’m being reasonable and I should bring him into the ED. 

12.  I took him into the ED at RCRH, and was NOT impressed.  Triage did great of getting him in right away.  We got a resident, who seemed like he was pretty new.   They nebbed him again since his lungs were junky.  The resident came in and said we could go home after waiting for about an hour after the neb.  I asked him if anyone wanted to listen to Kilian before we took him home, and apparently the nurse had LIED to him and said she had listened to him and he was fine.  Grrr….  They sent us home with a prescription for a nebulizer machine and albuterol (Prescription count: 4!). 

Pulling Daddy's ear in the ER @ RCRH

13. We attempt to neb him at home, but it only takes about 10 seconds with the way the prescription is written and its gone.  Very weird. 

14. He wakes up on Friday morning, and he’s still breathing fast.  The pharmacist had said something about babies not tolerating the higher dose well, so I called my stepmom (pharmacist-extraordinaire!) and asked her about it.  She walked me through what we had done and realized we had missed a critical step of diluting with SALINE.  The ER doctor NOR the pharmacist mentioned saline…*sigh*  Off to Walgreens to buy saline.

15. Finally, he’s nebbed…nap is done.  Off to Black Hills Peds again to follow up with Dr. Whitney.  The results of the cat allergy test are back and he is indeed allergic to cats.  Pretty severely at that!  The concensus about the newest development is some histamines hadn’t cleared his body and caused a flare-up.  Back to the Benedryl, and continue to neb as needed. 

Kilian, despite going through all this with a crazy mom, has come through with flying colors.  He’s slept well, been mostly happy, and just is such a great little boy!  God has truly blessed us with this little man!  Word of note to all you cat owners – you’re safe from us coming to visit!

Since I’ve become a mom, I’ve become the queen of bargain shopping.  I know…that’s not uncommon for moms, but its such a 180 for me!  I never used to really hit the clearance racks (the new stuff always has every size!) and didn’t wait for the best deals (I want it NOW).  However, since this little man came into my life, I’m finding myself a little more cautious with our money.  Perhaps its because we don’t have as much of it because I’m not working that hospital anymore, or perhaps its because he’ll only use anything we buy him for a matter of months before he’s on to something else.  I’m not sure.  Whatever it is, its kind of fun!  My girlfriend, Miranda, had a huge garage sale the other day.  She’s got two boys (ages 5 and 8 ) and she was getting rid of all her clothes for age 4 and under!  So, after Kilian woke up and I fed him, I shoved a hat on my head, threw on a jacket, and we headed across town to her sale.  Got a bunch of cute clothes and some toys from her!   Yay!  THEN, as we’re driving off, I spy a cute little riding toy.  I screech to a halt, and ask the lady how much.  $10 for an awesome riding toy for Kilian (pictured below)!  Score!  Okay, so now its getting close to his naptime, but what’s this?  A Step2 Koala Climber Slide For $20???  DEAL!  The gentleman helped me take it apart and we shoved it in my car every which way.  Successful garage saling. 

Fast forward a couple of weeks to the Police Wives Club event last night.  I’m chatting with the gals, and one of the girls asks me if I have any use for a hiking backpack to put Kilian in?  I said, “Yes, Sean and I were just talking about getting one!”  She said her daughter didn’t want it for her son because it was “used”….apparently this gal had “used” it TWICE…it’s PERFECT!  She gave it to us for FREE!!  Can’t beat that!  Anyway, that was an amazing find (that technically found me!)

The moral of the story…talk to your friends who have had kids…they may be able to offer you a deal you can’t refuse!

Kilian LOVES his new riding toy!

I’m 28 years old today.  Soooo much closer to 30 than 27 was for some reason.  Oh well, at least there’s cake, right?

Mmmmm....cake.

I had a GREAT conversation with my husband tonight, and I thought I’d share some of it.  He had an issue come up today that brought him up short, and has made him realize that he needs to change a couple aspects of his personality.  He’s been lamenting about how on earth is he supposed to change a personality trait?  I mean…if its part of your personality, it must be pretty ingrained, right?  He was going on about how there’s all these things he should do differently, and how I’m so good at accomplishing my goals.  So I told him my secret.  Be delibrate and start small.  Whatever it is!  I mean, think about it.  EVERYTHING you do, when you’re starting out, you start small.  An example of starting small: driving.  When I learned how to drive, I couldn’t have the radio on or people talking to me.  Nothing.  I was focused on “gas right, brake left” and “turn signal to turn”.  Slowly, as I became more comfortable with the basics, I was able to add things…like music, chatting with friends, and the phone (I know…some things I should leave out!) 

Being delibrate though…I think that’s really the key here.  When you want something to change, you have to focus on it until it becomes second nature.  I’ll give another example.  After Kilian was born, I had hard time re-establishing a routine.  My life has just turned upside down and now I didn’t have a clue as to what I needed to do every day!  My house was a disaster, I couldn’t find time to exercise, and dinner just didn’t get made as often as I’d like.  So, I figured I’d start with one thing.  Just one thing I’d do EVERY week.  The shower.  I cleaned the shower for the first time in like….well, I’m embarassed to say.  It took some time.  Anyway, I honestly didn’t get much else done that day, but dang it the shower was clean.  Well, next week I cleaned the shower, and it only took a couple minutes since grime takes longer than a week to really build up.  Suddenly I had more time during Kilian’s nap….so I cleaned the bathroom too.  I’m sure you can see where this is headed.  Now, I’m able to get most of my house cleaned, laundry done, and still have time to do some pilates or head to Zumba!  But it was just that delibrate change of focusing on one thing and making DANG SURE it got done that got me here!  I feel as though I handle most tough things in my life that way, and so far it seems to be working for me.  So I leave you with this….be delibrate in all that you do…and start small.  Except for ice cream.  Go big with that!

It’s kind of amazing how much stuff we find to fill our days!  It seems like there is literally a never-ending list of things that need to be done, and even when you think you’re all done and you can sit down to relax….something else raises its head and says, “Hey…you forgot this!”  I feel like the past week has been a total whirlwind of activities and things to do, but I look around my house and think “So…what is it I’ve been doing for the past week?”  I thought I’d detail it out just to prove to myself I got some things accomplished. 

 - I cleaned up the flower beds, and planted some very pretty perennials and annuals.  I also purchased some raspberry bushes, but I’m not sure where I want to put those yet. 

 - I made about a billion different kinds of baby food (blueberry/blackberry sauce, peaches, pears, butternut squash, and carrots)  Okay, so not a billion, but it was quite a busy day. 

 - I cleaned…and cleaned….and cleaned.

 - I worked Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday….and then Monday and half of Tuesday (only half because my baby boy decided he wasn’t going to nap in the afternoon which lead to super crabby baby)

 - I worked out (4 mile walk, 2 mile walk, 2 mile run x 2, 2 Zumba classes, and a pilates workout)

 - I spend a lot of quality time with Kilian this week…lots of playing, walks, and just fun time spent together. 

 - Took Kilian to the doctor because he was SUPER fussy last week; turns out it was just teeth…again.  We’re up to six of those bad boys now!

Well, perhaps it wasn’t as much as it seems…feels like a lot though.  Sean is out of town getting Magnum certified in Sioux Falls, so I’m going to take the time to just relax…at least until something else comes along.

I never used to have a coffee addiction.  I really didn’t.  I’d drink a cup here and there, and perhaps a latte once in a while, but nothing serious.  Then I started working at Young Life.  Now, I think a good 60% of my blood stream is brewed with the world’s finest beans.  At the hospital, we didn’t really have time for coffee breaks all the time, and you certainly couldn’t drink it in the lab!  At Young Life, you’re almost a little crazy if you don’t have a reusable coffee cup (with a sticker of some sort adorning it) sitting on your desk with your favorite java permeating the air around you.  What’s more, is one of my dear friends and coworkers works for a coffee roasting company, and now provides me with amazing whole bean coffee at a reasonable rate to feed my addiction.  Plus, one of my other wonderful coworkers got me a Starbucks coffee card for Administrative Assistant’s Day, so I am able to get a hit from my drug of choice for FREE!  *sigh*  Oh, and now Starbucks is coming out with amazing new flavors all year long, so I’m not only hitting them  up in the fall for Pumpkin Spice Lattes and Caramel Brulee Lattes…now its Dark Cherry Mocha and Passion Tea Lemonades!  *drool*  AND, now the same dear friend who is providing me with coffee, now got me to become a soy fanatic, so every latte is automatically $0.50 more!  Hooray! (Seriously though…so amazing!) 

Anyway…where was I going with this?  Apparently I need a pick me up…I wonder if Starbucks will deliver…

I’ve decided I complain too much.  I complain about work, I complain about being in debt, I complain about not having any money because we’re trying to get OUT of debt, I complain about Kilian not napping, I complain about Sean being gone, I complain about losing baby weight, I complain about clothes not fitting right, I complain about my hair and skin, I complain about dog hair, I complain about family and friends being too far away, I complain that pumpkin spice lattes are only around for a few months out of the year, I complain about my bed being too soft, I complain about my husband putting his life on the line every night he goes to work, I complain about not being able to work out enough, I complain that I don’t WANT to work out (want the fat to just melt away).  You get the idea.  So, from here on out, I plan to complain less.  I can’t obviously stop everything (let’s just not be crazy here!) but I can definitely tone it down.  So as my friends and family, I ask you that if you catch me complaining, tell me to KNOCK IT OFF!

Thanks.