I am not going to lie. This has been a difficult Christmas season for us. To top off a challenging few weeks that saw me changing jobs and more, Jo Anna broke her wrist 1 week ago yesterday. We were roller skating and having a most excellent time when she attempted to retrieve Sarah's antler headband only to lose her balance and land on her rear. Both bones in her left arm near her wrist were broken and had to be reduced. Jumping ahead, she has been suffering a great deal and dealing with nausea as well. What a struggle...
I can't say with certainty that I understand WHY this happened, nevertheless it did. There is some deeper purpose to it, though we may never understand it. Despite this minor tragedy, we are reminded that this is a time of celebration as we remember the birth of the true Suffering Servant. Jesus Christ was most likely not born on December 25th, 0000, but, believer or not, no one can deny that he WAS indeed born back then. How much can we suffer compared to what He did for us as Christians? There is no human pain, tragedy or global catastrophe that could compare to what He endured approximately 33 years after His birth. Jo Anna's/our family's suffering cannot be compared to the weight of the sin of the world.
Thank you Jesus for loving us enough to bring a "means to the End" despite knowing what you were in for. I know I don't deserve it...
Merry CHRISTmas!
Scott
Friday, December 25, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Adventures in Coffee-Making
I know you are all (OK, so no one actually 'follows' our wimpy blog for now...but wait till you see the upgrades that are coming soon....it will POP) looking for an adoption update, either the prequel or sequel to the last post. However, I thought to put a little humor in the mix this morning from my coffeemaker seeking escapades.
So, if you caught my Tweet/FB update you know that our coffeemaker broke. Well, what appears to have happened is that the tube that sucks (couldn't think of a better term) the water in from the reservoir must have gotten clogged. I tried everything to get that puppy to move the water along. Jo Anna thought to call Sunbeam, the manufacturer of Mr. Coffee machines (imagine that, they are owned by the company whose line of namesake products I despise due to past experiences...all bad) and insist that this was a warranty issue. We've only had this machine for nearly 3 years, and it only has a 1 year limited warranty. You have to know Jo Anna...everything is a warranty issue and she never wants to pay for the 'extended service plan' or similar. "That shouldn't happen..." should be the plaque hanging above the kitchen entryway. LOL
I finally gave up and pushed the derelict over and out of the way to make room for Thanksgiving dinner. As an aside, if you haven't used Alton Brown's simple turkey brine for your bird, look it up and do it for Christmas...delish. Anyway, we struggled...and I mean struggled to get through the last few days (it broke Wednesday, November 25th) :*-) Jo Anna had purchased a mini-Keurig machine that brews with those cute little 'k'-cups. It got plenty of use since Wednesday, let me tell you. My DW even got up the courage to actually brew a cup herself...and didn't cause any damage (yeah, she is 'technologically-challenged' to say the least). If that little 1-cup coffeemaker could speak, it would be shouting all kinds of obscenities at us.
On to the potentially funny parts. That was the sermon 'intro'...haha. The title of this post is a parody of "Adventures in Babysitting". If you have ever seen that film, you should be chuckling right now. So much went wrong it was even awkward at times. LOL
I looked up the same CM (I gotta shorten 'coffeemaker'....it's just too much to write) online at Kohl's, which is where we bought the first one. I was happy to see that price had been reduced and was on sale. I kept the web page up for over a day to remind me of the 'target'. So yesterday I began planning the 'mission'. My 'goal' was clear. I would get up at 4:30am to arrive at 6am at Kohl's to obtain 'the package' and return to 'homebase'. Jo Anna was to be at work by 8am, so I had little time to waste on my 'quest'. (Am I using too many of those thingies...you know, the partial quotations that have another name???)
I couldn't sleep. It didn't help that I watched my Pitt Panthers go down in flames at the hands of the WVU Mountaineers...then went on to watch one of my favorite Denzel films, Crimson Tide (go Bama). I made the mistake of logging in to my Facebook account and caught up on the latest posts and games. I finally went to bed after 1am. Yikes. I set the alarm for 5am and tried to fall asleep. I had one of those nights where I was overly concerned that I wouldn't ever fall asleep and/or wouldn't wake up when the alarm went off. Well, I got about 3 and a half hours before I was awake. I tried to fall back asleep, but couldn't...so I got up at 4:45. Ugh.
After intially failing the attempt to make a 'k'-cup in the Keurig, it reluctantly gave up and yielded it's sweet nectar. I proceeded to take a deep breath and dive in to my mission. On to Kohl's to fight the crowds on the day after Black Friday. I left at 6am...great :-(
There were no crowds...no one to elbow me, step on my toes while navigating between the messy bays, andno stressed out associates. I had mentally prepared for battle (yeah, I gave up on those mini-me quote marks), yet my opponent was not present. I pleasant, yet unsettling surprise. LOL
I headed straight for those funky little top-heavy shopping carts (which barely qualify). Yeah, you know the ones. They have a false bottom that leads to the same place that socks go while in the clothes dryer. Anyway, I grabbed one and drove it towards the housewares area. Did I mention that I was one of only 2 males in the place? Awkward. So admidst those really unnecessary and annoying pages from the management stating what their goal is (ex. "We're looking for 40 people, so let's get moving. 121 is already there.") I found the CM I was looking for. Then, I had no intentions to do so, but...*sigh*...I went shopping. OK. I said it.
I will skip the parts where I bought clothes for my new job (which is my old job, just a different locale...which is actually my old locale from last stint in NC...long story). I was at the checkout with the pleasant associates who didn't seem to notice that the place was a disaster. As I was paying for everything, I get a $50 Kohl's 'bucks' or whatever that I could have used to buy Jo Anna's present that I wasn't supposed to buy (yet another post).
I drive home, drinking my cold, yucky 'k'-cup anticipating my brewing a cup at home. Mmmmmmm....fresh brewed regular coffeeeeeeee. Skipping to the point where I pull the new CM out of the box where I notice that I bought the one without the warming plate controls...which was WHY I was going to purchase this particular Mr. Coffee. Mr. Crawford was at that point neglecting this fact and ready to make Mr. Coffee do his rightful duty. I called and spoke to Mrs. Crawford who agreed that we couldn't wait any longer (no, we are not caffeine addicts, just former Yanks who love coffee in the morning). Then, after all my morning challenges -- getting 3.5 hours sleep to arrive at the store by 6am, psyching myself up to throw down with the wild shoppers, getting to Kohl's late, disobeying my own mandate of not doing any other shopping, putting up with the horrible conditions and listening to the funky pages by management, and then arriving home only to discover that I had bought the wrong CM -- I got it all prep'd and ready to brew and finally made a cup of Joe. *extra big sigh*
Sorry for such a long post. I cut it short because I need to take Nugget to the vets to have a couple nights in the doggie spa while we go to Charlotte. I hope you appreciated my adventures :-)
So, if you caught my Tweet/FB update you know that our coffeemaker broke. Well, what appears to have happened is that the tube that sucks (couldn't think of a better term) the water in from the reservoir must have gotten clogged. I tried everything to get that puppy to move the water along. Jo Anna thought to call Sunbeam, the manufacturer of Mr. Coffee machines (imagine that, they are owned by the company whose line of namesake products I despise due to past experiences...all bad) and insist that this was a warranty issue. We've only had this machine for nearly 3 years, and it only has a 1 year limited warranty. You have to know Jo Anna...everything is a warranty issue and she never wants to pay for the 'extended service plan' or similar. "That shouldn't happen..." should be the plaque hanging above the kitchen entryway. LOL
I finally gave up and pushed the derelict over and out of the way to make room for Thanksgiving dinner. As an aside, if you haven't used Alton Brown's simple turkey brine for your bird, look it up and do it for Christmas...delish. Anyway, we struggled...and I mean struggled to get through the last few days (it broke Wednesday, November 25th) :*-) Jo Anna had purchased a mini-Keurig machine that brews with those cute little 'k'-cups. It got plenty of use since Wednesday, let me tell you. My DW even got up the courage to actually brew a cup herself...and didn't cause any damage (yeah, she is 'technologically-challenged' to say the least). If that little 1-cup coffeemaker could speak, it would be shouting all kinds of obscenities at us.
On to the potentially funny parts. That was the sermon 'intro'...haha. The title of this post is a parody of "Adventures in Babysitting". If you have ever seen that film, you should be chuckling right now. So much went wrong it was even awkward at times. LOL
I looked up the same CM (I gotta shorten 'coffeemaker'....it's just too much to write) online at Kohl's, which is where we bought the first one. I was happy to see that price had been reduced and was on sale. I kept the web page up for over a day to remind me of the 'target'. So yesterday I began planning the 'mission'. My 'goal' was clear. I would get up at 4:30am to arrive at 6am at Kohl's to obtain 'the package' and return to 'homebase'. Jo Anna was to be at work by 8am, so I had little time to waste on my 'quest'. (Am I using too many of those thingies...you know, the partial quotations that have another name???)
I couldn't sleep. It didn't help that I watched my Pitt Panthers go down in flames at the hands of the WVU Mountaineers...then went on to watch one of my favorite Denzel films, Crimson Tide (go Bama). I made the mistake of logging in to my Facebook account and caught up on the latest posts and games. I finally went to bed after 1am. Yikes. I set the alarm for 5am and tried to fall asleep. I had one of those nights where I was overly concerned that I wouldn't ever fall asleep and/or wouldn't wake up when the alarm went off. Well, I got about 3 and a half hours before I was awake. I tried to fall back asleep, but couldn't...so I got up at 4:45. Ugh.
After intially failing the attempt to make a 'k'-cup in the Keurig, it reluctantly gave up and yielded it's sweet nectar. I proceeded to take a deep breath and dive in to my mission. On to Kohl's to fight the crowds on the day after Black Friday. I left at 6am...great :-(
There were no crowds...no one to elbow me, step on my toes while navigating between the messy bays, andno stressed out associates. I had mentally prepared for battle (yeah, I gave up on those mini-me quote marks), yet my opponent was not present. I pleasant, yet unsettling surprise. LOL
I headed straight for those funky little top-heavy shopping carts (which barely qualify). Yeah, you know the ones. They have a false bottom that leads to the same place that socks go while in the clothes dryer. Anyway, I grabbed one and drove it towards the housewares area. Did I mention that I was one of only 2 males in the place? Awkward. So admidst those really unnecessary and annoying pages from the management stating what their goal is (ex. "We're looking for 40 people, so let's get moving. 121 is already there.") I found the CM I was looking for. Then, I had no intentions to do so, but...*sigh*...I went shopping. OK. I said it.
I will skip the parts where I bought clothes for my new job (which is my old job, just a different locale...which is actually my old locale from last stint in NC...long story). I was at the checkout with the pleasant associates who didn't seem to notice that the place was a disaster. As I was paying for everything, I get a $50 Kohl's 'bucks' or whatever that I could have used to buy Jo Anna's present that I wasn't supposed to buy (yet another post).
I drive home, drinking my cold, yucky 'k'-cup anticipating my brewing a cup at home. Mmmmmmm....fresh brewed regular coffeeeeeeee. Skipping to the point where I pull the new CM out of the box where I notice that I bought the one without the warming plate controls...which was WHY I was going to purchase this particular Mr. Coffee. Mr. Crawford was at that point neglecting this fact and ready to make Mr. Coffee do his rightful duty. I called and spoke to Mrs. Crawford who agreed that we couldn't wait any longer (no, we are not caffeine addicts, just former Yanks who love coffee in the morning). Then, after all my morning challenges -- getting 3.5 hours sleep to arrive at the store by 6am, psyching myself up to throw down with the wild shoppers, getting to Kohl's late, disobeying my own mandate of not doing any other shopping, putting up with the horrible conditions and listening to the funky pages by management, and then arriving home only to discover that I had bought the wrong CM -- I got it all prep'd and ready to brew and finally made a cup of Joe. *extra big sigh*
Sorry for such a long post. I cut it short because I need to take Nugget to the vets to have a couple nights in the doggie spa while we go to Charlotte. I hope you appreciated my adventures :-)
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Catch up time
Well, I will admit that we are terrible about blogging. I am now officially a Facebook & Twitter addict. However, I cannot either find or make the time to blog. Which, when you think about it, is somewhat obscure when you have little to discuss, or duplicate everything in other social sites. I have tried to get Jo Anna to blog for the family, but alas she is old school (notice I did not say OLD) and does not have time since she went back to work full-time to support our adoption cause. So, since I have thought more and more about including a link to our personal family blog on our communications, I figured I should update the postings.
So what is new around our home? Well, first off our adoption. We are a few months in and still have a ways to go. I am hopeful we will indeed have our dossier finished and in the hands of the ICAB by the end of the month or early in October. We have our psychiatric evaluations to finish this week or next, biometrics, more forms (never-ending) and then any more forms that are required. The home study is in the final stages of preparation and we have a great case worker. What is all that to say for those of you who are not familiar with the process? We expect our boy(s) to be received sometime next year (2010). Yes, you heard me...we do seek either 1 or 2 toddlers (siblings) between the ages of 2-5. And, for those of you completely unfamiliar with our circumstances, we are adopting internationally from the Philippines. You may ask why from that country? That is a post all by itself...not for bad reasons.
Our girls returned to Calvary Baptist Day School this fall sememster. Sarah was diagnosed with mild ADD this summer, so we had concerns that she might struggle like she did a bit at the end of last year. Well, she has a great teacher that has been around since the school started 20+ years ago. Also, she is seated in the front of the class and they are employing "Touch-Point Math" which seems to really help her proficiency. We are hoping to avoid medication if we can, utilizing environmental changes and exercising her brain when we can supplement her school work. Rachael on the other hand had a very likeable teacher, but we feel she was not sufficiently challenged. This year she has a much more uh, "strict" teacher so that should help. They are both enrolled in dance this fall at Baylin Dance Studios (same place for 5 years now), with Sarah being asked to move on to a more advanced class since she was far ahead of the others in her day's class last year. This was the first year that they were both looking forward to dance prior to the start of the season. Sarah really needs that extra special instructional time.
Jo Anna's health has been consistently good this year, despite her increased work load. She has had and continues to face many challenges at work. Her stress level has been rather elevated during this period. We have made many strides to try and balance the workload amongst all family members. It stresses me out to not be able to help her more with all that I have been facing lately, however we have made it through. She has had to back off from being a Discussion Leader with the international Bible study, BSF that she has been involved in.
Next, my (Scott's) health. I am currently 35 years old and pretty much beginning to fall apart at the seams. LOL I have had degenerative disk disease which progressed into a herniated disk that more or less blew out last year in August. That was not fun. I had a rare condition called an extrusion, where the gel-like material in the inside portion of the disk is forced out of the outer layer, leaving just a "donut" there. It is much weaker than before and I am in nearly constant pain. Long work days make it even more difficult. I had flare up this past March which led me to having 3 epidurals in less than 2 months. I was trudging along until yesterday when I was first eligible and had my most recent epidural. This one hurt...bad. I yelped twice and then proceeded to suffer most of yesterday and slept about 4 hours last night. Anyway, I am confident that we will be able to manage this condition and it is not life-threatening.
On the other hand, I had a situation about 5 weeks ago where I had what could have been a life threatening condition. I woke up one morning and felt short of breath and had a rapid heart beat. Well, I gave it some time, as I thought that maybe it was something I ate the night before or the like. It persisted, I almost fainted once, then again and ended up in Forsyth Medical Center's Emergency Department shortly after that. I presented with a rate of 180 beats per minute, a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation (despite taking my heart rate-controlling beta blocker that morning, which I actully take to control a hand tremor). To make a long story short, it took 3 doses of a standard beta blocker on top of what I had already as well as the "chemical defibrillator" in order to get me back into rhythm. I nearly had to be cardioverted with the proverbial "paddles" to revert to sinus. Anyway, skipping a few steps and days, I had a positive test for heart disease, only to have that confirmed as a false positive by a heart cath about 10 days ago. WHEW! That was a close call indeed. Even though there is an early history of heart attacks as well as strokes and heart disease in my paternal family, it still does not explain it. I am working closely with my family doctor to try and determine if anything else could lead to it, and therefore prevent a possible recurrence. I will follow up to this post should we find anything.
So what is new around our home? Well, first off our adoption. We are a few months in and still have a ways to go. I am hopeful we will indeed have our dossier finished and in the hands of the ICAB by the end of the month or early in October. We have our psychiatric evaluations to finish this week or next, biometrics, more forms (never-ending) and then any more forms that are required. The home study is in the final stages of preparation and we have a great case worker. What is all that to say for those of you who are not familiar with the process? We expect our boy(s) to be received sometime next year (2010). Yes, you heard me...we do seek either 1 or 2 toddlers (siblings) between the ages of 2-5. And, for those of you completely unfamiliar with our circumstances, we are adopting internationally from the Philippines. You may ask why from that country? That is a post all by itself...not for bad reasons.
Our girls returned to Calvary Baptist Day School this fall sememster. Sarah was diagnosed with mild ADD this summer, so we had concerns that she might struggle like she did a bit at the end of last year. Well, she has a great teacher that has been around since the school started 20+ years ago. Also, she is seated in the front of the class and they are employing "Touch-Point Math" which seems to really help her proficiency. We are hoping to avoid medication if we can, utilizing environmental changes and exercising her brain when we can supplement her school work. Rachael on the other hand had a very likeable teacher, but we feel she was not sufficiently challenged. This year she has a much more uh, "strict" teacher so that should help. They are both enrolled in dance this fall at Baylin Dance Studios (same place for 5 years now), with Sarah being asked to move on to a more advanced class since she was far ahead of the others in her day's class last year. This was the first year that they were both looking forward to dance prior to the start of the season. Sarah really needs that extra special instructional time.
Jo Anna's health has been consistently good this year, despite her increased work load. She has had and continues to face many challenges at work. Her stress level has been rather elevated during this period. We have made many strides to try and balance the workload amongst all family members. It stresses me out to not be able to help her more with all that I have been facing lately, however we have made it through. She has had to back off from being a Discussion Leader with the international Bible study, BSF that she has been involved in.
Next, my (Scott's) health. I am currently 35 years old and pretty much beginning to fall apart at the seams. LOL I have had degenerative disk disease which progressed into a herniated disk that more or less blew out last year in August. That was not fun. I had a rare condition called an extrusion, where the gel-like material in the inside portion of the disk is forced out of the outer layer, leaving just a "donut" there. It is much weaker than before and I am in nearly constant pain. Long work days make it even more difficult. I had flare up this past March which led me to having 3 epidurals in less than 2 months. I was trudging along until yesterday when I was first eligible and had my most recent epidural. This one hurt...bad. I yelped twice and then proceeded to suffer most of yesterday and slept about 4 hours last night. Anyway, I am confident that we will be able to manage this condition and it is not life-threatening.
On the other hand, I had a situation about 5 weeks ago where I had what could have been a life threatening condition. I woke up one morning and felt short of breath and had a rapid heart beat. Well, I gave it some time, as I thought that maybe it was something I ate the night before or the like. It persisted, I almost fainted once, then again and ended up in Forsyth Medical Center's Emergency Department shortly after that. I presented with a rate of 180 beats per minute, a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation (despite taking my heart rate-controlling beta blocker that morning, which I actully take to control a hand tremor). To make a long story short, it took 3 doses of a standard beta blocker on top of what I had already as well as the "chemical defibrillator" in order to get me back into rhythm. I nearly had to be cardioverted with the proverbial "paddles" to revert to sinus. Anyway, skipping a few steps and days, I had a positive test for heart disease, only to have that confirmed as a false positive by a heart cath about 10 days ago. WHEW! That was a close call indeed. Even though there is an early history of heart attacks as well as strokes and heart disease in my paternal family, it still does not explain it. I am working closely with my family doctor to try and determine if anything else could lead to it, and therefore prevent a possible recurrence. I will follow up to this post should we find anything.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Wow...too much to catch up on
We lost Lucky back in April. He was such a great cat. In fact, he was more like a dog than he was a cat. He was famous for his "girlie"-meow (no doubt from his becoming a eunich), his headbutts and his super-friendly demeanor. Some cats are very anti-social (ex. our other cat, Katie whom I have dubbed the "cave dweller" since she almost never comes up from the basement), but not Lucky. Everyone was his friend.
Lucky was diagnosed over a year prior with FIV, or Feline Immunodeficiency Virus. Similar to HIV but specific for cats, it has the same effect. He lived a relatively normal life except for the last infection that he simply could not overcome. Read more about this condition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_immunodeficiency_virus
We will miss the little guy. He was my best furry friend ever :-)
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Greetings and Salutations
Greetings!
I have named our blog after my nickname for our family. Team Crawford consists of me, Scott...my wife, Jo Anna...our oldest daughter, Rachael...and our youngest daughter, Sarah. We also have 1 cat, Katie...as well as a dog, Nugget. We will fill in the details of each family member as opportunites exist.
I have named our blog after my nickname for our family. Team Crawford consists of me, Scott...my wife, Jo Anna...our oldest daughter, Rachael...and our youngest daughter, Sarah. We also have 1 cat, Katie...as well as a dog, Nugget. We will fill in the details of each family member as opportunites exist.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)