We Now Return You to Your Regularly Scheduled Blog

Okay, hearing all the problems people have been having, I think I've figured it all out. You may or may not know that Blogger is owned by Google, and Blogger has been going through an upgrade for the past few months. In addition to upgrading the entire Blogger system to a kind of "Blogger 2.0," one of the upgrades was to merge Blogger and Google accounts, so you only need one account/password to sign in to either account. Unfortnately, I didn't realize that I had to upgrade our blog before any of the other changes could take place. So Blogger was asking for Google sign-ins, but then wouldn't allow them.

With the new Blogger 2.0, you'll notice a couple other changes. Most importantly, you can now add labels for your posts, so it'll be able to find a post about a particular topic. For example, I'm going to file this post under "Admin."

Long-story short--I think I've fixed the problem. You should be able to post again normally now, by loggging in with your Google account information. If anyone continues to have problems, please ask me directly to look into it.

Put the pictures on the blog and no one gets hurt

I demand pictures and updates on the newest doings of our newest niece. Inquiring minds want to know what fun new trick she has learned (where "trick" is a broad term that can encompass everything from learning to suck her thumb, to getting her first cold, to peeing on someone other than herself, etc.)

What we're up to

We have a meeting next week with our contractor to lock down the final details and determine a start date for our latest home renovation project: a carriage house/workshop (for our horseless carriages and our work and our shop ;-), a mudroom breezeway connecting this to the kitchen, moving the back door around to the west side of the house, installing some windows in its place on the N side, and framing/roughing in a master bath addition off our closet (which will become a walk-through closet).

Mr. Bun John has also said that he can install a much-needed new asphalt roof for us on the second story, plus shingle the carriage house (I am calling it that because the word "garage" is like fingernails on a blackboard to me - unless someone else can come up with a better name - but the design is like an old carriage house) roof, plus shingle the master bath addition.

We will be doing all the electrical work, plumbing beyond the rough-in, rock, mud, tiling, and finish carpentry work ourselves on all these things. Plus (don't know if this will be this year or not) building a deck-with-pergola/patio combination off the back of the carriage house, replacing remaining east kitchen windows with french doors as access, dividing the existing first-floor bath into two rooms and turning one into an office and refinishing the other as a 3/4 bath, and turning my existing "office" in the kitchen into a pantry area.

Then of course we'll need to remodel our closet and bedroom to go with the new master bath.

And when all that's done, that'll leave only the Bowman guest bedroom as the last remaining existing room to remodel!

Then of course there's the fact that at some point we want to finish off the attic and turn it into a small en-suite plus a box room.

And oh yeah, the contractor's project may include a potting shed/greenhouse/mower storage area, depending on how much home equity loan money we have left when we're done (and how much of our sanity....)

Yeah.... Looking at this list, this isn't all going to get anywhere near done this year, but for sure the new garage, mud room, and framing for the master bath, and the roofing.

Just thought you might like to know that eventually we'll have covered parking. Too late for winter of 2006-2007, but ooh, next year will be grand.

Update on Claire

We saw the Dr. on Monday and here is what we think: She was running high all afternoon and evening on Saturday and we couldn't get her sugar down. I changed her port and this fixed the BG. The problem is that her body was getting used to being high so the rapid drop in her blood sugar made her feel hypoglycemic, even though she wasn't. When she hit 98, her body reacted like it was bottoming out. We don't need to do any further testing and she has been fine since Sunday.

Don't be alarmed but...

Claire had to go to the ER very early this morning. She woke up at about 2am and said she had a very bad dream, and then after that she was very disoriented and confused. Mike checked her blood sugar and she was 98 which is pretty decent but he was worried she might drop more so he gave her a banana and a small bolus for it. Then he laid down with her to help her sleep. About an hour later he came and got me and said she was still very confused. She kept flinging her arms and legs around, kinda like when you are trying to go to sleep but can't quite get comfortable and your frustrated. She also had her eyes open the whole time, but was very out of it. I checked her BG and she was down to 69. I suspended her pump and tried to get her to eat some glucose tablets or drink some pop, but she refused to open her mouth. I would ask her to eat it and she would nod but then get mad when I tried to put it in her mouth. She would start crying for no reason and then stop suddenly and look around like she had no idea what was happening. We asked her questions like what her name is or who we are and she would either just shrug or say I don't know. He blood sugar after about 10 minutes of this was at 89 so she was coming up rapidly just with the pump suspended. We realized that the whole thign was probably unrelated to her diabetes, but something was still terribly wrong. I called the nurse-on-call and explained what was happening and she said she really couldn't figure out what was wrong and we should take her in to be checked. By the time we got to the ER her BG was up to 108. They did a CT scan and lots of blood tests and a urine test. The CT was fine, blood all good, but she has a slight UT infection. The DR. is unsure if this has anything to do with anything, but he said sometimes infections can cause wierd problems. We were there for about 3 hours before she finally came around and could answer all of our questions. There is also the possibility that she was just in a very deep sleep, but he said it should't take hours to come out of it like that.

Anyway, we were realeased and told to make an appointement with the pediatrician tomorrow and he will probably have her go to Akron Childrens to have an EEG and some other more extensive tests done. She has had to do this once before about 2 years ago. Eveything was normal then, but you just never know.

If anyone has heard of something lke this before and can give us some insightt please do. I don't know what is worse, to have all the tests come back normal and still have no idea what is wrong, or to have something come back irregular but at least know where to start fixing it.

Cheerleading

Claire was a Husky Cheerleader last night at the basketball game. She did so well! I was a proud mom. They did 3 different cheers and then a dance. The dance was a bit harder for her as there were a lot of moves to remember and they only had 3 practices to learn all the cheers and dance, but she was awesome on the cheers. There were probably between 50 and 75 little girls out there on the gym floor. It was so cute.

Our big news

I'd like to share our big news, which is that we have a new niece! Her name is Johanna Eden Miller, and she was born on 2/2. I think she was 8 lbs, 1 oz. and 20.5" long.

She was very opiniated and gassy and cute, so she fit right in with the rest of the family.

I just wanted to make sure that everyone knew about this.