Biting Friends

My husband got home from his trip early this week. We were all very happy to have him home...
When he got home, I noticed about 100 bites all over his arms legs and neck. He thought they were mosquito bites, but they weren't as big as the normal mosquito bites. I promptly emptied his bag and did all of his laundry as soon as we got home. The next day, his bites were itching more. He was going crazy. I had him smothered in hydrocortizone to help with the itching. It seemed to work a little bit. His parents came over that night and his mom looked at him and asked if he was sure it wasn't "Chiggers". Never heard of them and so it didn't really register for either of us. The following day, he started blistering on some of his bites. I looked up chigger bites, and his bites looked EXACTLY like them. And chiggers are known to be in lake areas in the Southern states, which was where he was. Sure enough, he has chigger bites all over him...
But now I am freaked out. I stayed up a lot of the night on Tuesday because I was doing research on these microscopic creatures. These creatures can stay on your skin for 2-5 days. He was in Louisiana less than 5 days ago when I realized what he had! I kept thinking I was having things crawl all over me that night. Questions I have been asking myself: what if he still has some on him and they start living in our bed? I stripped the bed this morning and wiped it down with Lysol. But remember the previous paragraph where I mentioned that I promptly emptied his bag? His bag was on the bed on the comforter that cannot be machine washed. Do I need to fumigate the room? Are these things going to start taking over Arizona like the Africanized bee because he brought them with him?(Probably not, but you never know) And why on Earth did God create these things??? They are nasty!

Other than the Chigger bites and all that goes with it, I am so happy to have my husband home! We have not been apart for a very long time. It was good for him to be away for a few days. The last time we were apart from each other for longer than 1 night was when I was in the hospital after having Nolan, which was almost 5 years ago. As much as I really enjoyed having a Queen-sized bed all to myself, I really enjoy sharing it more...And having meaningful conversations at dinnertime!

Welcome home Honey! We missed you and love you!

4th Photo

My girlfriend Audrey tagged me into doing this fun little game.

The rules are, go to your My Pictures folder, choose the 4th folder and then the 4th picture and tell the story behind it. Do this without checking first to see what the photo is - more fun that way!



This is a spot we camped at in Hope, Alaska. It was very majestic as you can see by the photo. We were there in 2004, visiting our good friend Karen. I was 5 months pregnant and was lucky to be able to sleep in a motorhome, which was much more comfy than the ground! After we left Hope, we took Karen's other car and drove down to Seward where we stayed for a couple days. It was a wonderful trip. One that I was happy to be able to take my kids on. One that I hope to go on again, possibly for Rob's next sabbatical.

If you are reading this post, you have been tagged! Have fun!

We are home!

So we had no internet connection while in New York. It would have been $16.00 a day to connect, so we decided that it wasn't really worth it. We had it in NJ, but we didn't stay in the hotel room long enough to worry about checking e-mails or updating the blog.



Our trip was FANTASTIC! We stayed in Seattle on Thursday night on a 21 hour layover with Rob's cousin, Rich and his wife, Cathy. You may be asking why we went from Phoenix to Seattle to New York...Well, we had frequent flyer miles through Alaska Air and thought that Seattle would be fun as it has been a long time since either of us has been there. Awesome time! It rained lightly the whole time we were there, but it was great because it was a light rain we didn't really ever get wet. We went to the fish market and drove through downtown Seattle. We went out for breakfast at a record store/restaurant. It was awesome food!

We landed in Newark on Friday night at 11:30 and got to the hotel in record time, thanks to the crazy cab driver! I think he shaved off 10 years of my life! The hotel was the Marriott Marquis right on Broadway and 46th. It was incredible! Thank you Nancy, for the wonder Marriott stay! Absolutely fabulous!

Once we got to the hotel, we showered and went out on the town (It was just as busy at 12:30 as it would have been at 8 or 9). We ate some fancy dinner at a street vendor--a chicken kabob and steak kabob, YUM! We ended up going to be around 2:30 or 3.

On Saturday, we woke up early and had Starbucks for breakfast and took a tour on the on and off bus. 1/4 into the tour, the camera battery died. When the tour was done (we didn't get off the bus once), we went to Bubba Gump restaurant for lunch. My food was interesting. Rob really enjoyed his though. Then we picked up another battery and went back on the tour again on the bus. We stopped in several places and enjoyed it a lot! For dinner, we went to a little Italian mom and pop restaurant. It was pretty good.

We decided that the subways would be better transportation instead of cabs for the next trip on Sunday, because we wanted to go all over. We started off at Central Park and walked around the south end of the park. We saw the horse drawn carriages everywhere, and thought it would be cool to take one. Before we got on one, we went and had a hot dog from a vendor and coated nuts, MMM...They were delicious! Then we were off on the carriage ride, only to find out that we had already walked everywhere the carriage goes. For some reason, we thought we would go further north on the carriage ride, but we were wrong. When that was over, we made our way up to the Bronx to see the 2 Yankee stadiums (old and New). We got there 15 minutes too late to take a tour of the house that Babe built, but we got lots of photos of the 2 stadiums. After that, we got back on the sub and went to Chinatown to find some good knock-offs. So many people there...My feet had blisters...I didn't have the patience to go in the secret rooms to see what there was to offer. We ate at a Chinese restaurant while there and Rob had DUCK! He asked me if I wanted to try it!?! NOOOO! I had soup and fried rice. Yum! After that, we went to the Empire State Building. We had gotten there right at Sunset, but there was about an hour wait, so we weren't able to see any of New York in the daylight, but it was VERY beautiful!

On Monday, we went to go see the Today show...We used to watch that show religiously...Before Kids (BK). It turns out that Matt was on vacation, bummer. But it was still really cool. Meredith was outside on the plaza when we got there. Ann Curry came out later. She is so nice! With all of her fame, she is very down to earth and really seems to care about her fans! After the today show, we went to...Big Shock...another street vendor. We had breakfast sandwiches which were excellent, and we ate them on a bench on the street. Unfortunately, we had to check out of the Marriott Marquis that morning. We checked our bags at the bell desk so we could go shopping through Manhattan. We really enjoyed ourselves. Then it was off to Dave Letterman! I was really excited about this because we used to be huge Dave fans as well...Of course BK. While waiting for the Dave show, we went to Hello Deli (Rupert from the Letterman show owns it). Rupert wasn't nearly as friendly as you would expect. Good food though! After we were done with Dave, we were off to East Rutherford NJ for a hotel stay. We took a bus and it stopped right in front of the hotel...which was way cool. My mom and dad had donated points for us to stay there. Thanks Mom and Dad! We were starving and had to eat...We had no idea, however, that NJ was a lot more Suburban than NY. We asked the front desk guy where we could eat. He started rambling off places that we could drive...of course without a car, we got to walk to Charlie Browns for dinner...No need for comment on this restaurant.

The next morning was our last day in NY...We wanted to make the most of it. We started off at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Breakfast at Ellis Island. All of it was very cool! We got there early enough that it wasn't really packed. Of course we were also there in October vs. Summertime. Not so touristy this time of year. Then we were off to Chinatown again for my Coach purse...After many scary back secret rooms and a van office, we finally found my purse. We were so busy shopping that we forgot to eat lunch...Although we had some yummy nuts. We went to the gigantic Toys R Us with the Ferris Wheel inside. We had Gyros at a...you guessed it...Sidewalk vendor. Very delicious! Probably the best meal I ate while in NY. After that we went to see "Wicked". Thank you Jan and Don! Awesome show! Personally, I hated "Wizard of Oz". I only have seen it all the way through 1 time, and to me, that was enough. But after seeing Wicked, I have a new respect for Wizard of Oz. I will have to watch it and see if it can tie together in any way...Very fun ending to a fabulous trip! Then it was back to the bus to go back to NJ for a quick night's sleep before heading home the next day to our 3 fabulous sons that we missed immensely!

The Dog Days of Summer

We had the opportunity to go on a cruise this summer. My parents took everyone in the family. There were 21 of us in all. Rob and I were able to have our own room, which was great. The kids stayed in rooms with their cousins. We went to the Mexican Riviera. It was a blast. Thanks Mom and Dad for a great trip!