Let's start meeting the family part III

This is our beautiful daughter. She is 7 1/2 years old. She is a typical girl. She can be moody, esp. when she is tired. She has been active in cheerleading, tumbling, and horsebackriding. She loves ALL animals. She can't wait until she's 9 and can start handling her own dog in junior showmanship. She loves to cook with her easy bake oven, and make crafts. She did want to be a vet tech like her mom, but I think I have successfully talked her out of that. She now wants to be a model. She had her first published photo this year. She will appear in the Jones Fish Hatchery catalog. Hey you have to start somewhere.

She has always been our sickly child. She has seen a cardiologist for an innocent murmur at 3 months old, a urrologist, and a gastroenterologist. She had a bladder condition called reflux that was diagnosed when she was 10 months old. It is caused by the valve not functioning properly that stops urine from going from the bladder to the kidney. It also made her prone to urinary tract infections. The infections could set up shop in her kidneys due to the weakened values and cause kidney damage. She spent the next 3 years with monthly urine samples and daily antibiotics, that tasted yucky! Every 6 months she had to have kidney ultrasounds and cystograms. Cystograms are terrible procedures where the nurse places a urinary catheter and injects a radioactive solution into her bladder until it is extremely full, then they shoot xrays while the bladder is full and as it empties. All the while it is the parents job to hold down the screaming child keep her still for the photos and convince her it is okay the pee in a pan in front of all these nurses. Real fun. So after 3 years we decided to have the problem corrected surgically. The doctor injects a polymer that slowly biodegrades and forms a lump of scar tissue under the valve in her bladder to position it where it will function normally. The worst part was the anesthesia. I was so nervous. She did not handle recovery well. she vomited from 24 hours afterward and we had to get medication to make her stop. But the surgery was successful. We have been virtually problem free since. We did have one scare last year where a routine urinalysis showed some white blood cells but that proved to be just an artifact thank goodness.

She also has a very sensitive stomach and gets ill very easily. Anywhere from carsickness to just being too tired will cause her to vomit. We never know what we are going to get when we take her out. So we travel with spare clothes and lots of trash bags. Her doctor told us to try to regulated her diet well too.

Since she is our sickly one she gets babied and spoiled, but we still expect alot out of her since she's that oldest. She is my darling and a huge help to me. She is super smart and spunky.

let's start meeting the family part II

I think this photo says it all. This is our son. He recently turned 5. He is 100% boy. He loves all things reptile, amphibian, or butterfly-ish. He loves his transformer, power ranger, bakugan etc. toys. His favorite outdoor activity is football because he gets to tackle mommy. He also loves his wii. Yes we play video games in our house, but we don't do it obsessively. We are much too busy to be inside all the time. We love to play outside and hike in our woods and play with our critters.

He also loves trains. He has been to a day out with Thomas several times. We recently took him to Cincinnati to see the Duke Energy train display, and he loves to ride the train at the zoo.

As I am sure you can tell he loves music. Not that barney crap. He listens to what I listen to. He is the only 5 year old who knows every word to every Def Leppard song. He also listens to all the old 80's and 70's rock that I listen too. But Leppard is by far his favorite. His favorite songs include Pour Some Sugar On Me, Rock Of Ages, Rock On, and Hellraiser. I am sure someone is going to give me flack on this one, but it is innocent he just loves good sounding rock n roll.

He is also a child who knows exactly what he wants, and he won't leave you alone till he gets it. He has his certain foods he likes and everything else is gross he tells me. This child didn't just tell Santa what he wanted or make a list, he took the toy catalog with him to show Santa exactly what he wanted. And he loves to be at home not out shopping. This personality trait sometimes makes him a little hard to reason with, but one day it will lead him to do something great. Something that is exactly what he wants.

On the other hand he is also the most cuddly and affectionate child. Our favorite past time is to cuddle in the computer chair together and watch you tube music videos.

Let's start meeting the family

I thought I would introduce the people and animals in my life to you slowly since it would take you a full day to read about all of them. I thought I would start with the most important thing in my life, my husband of 13 years. I was very young when we got married and many people have asked me if I felt I missed out on things since I was married so young. I say ABSOLUTELY NOT! We dated when I was in high school and he was in college. He took me to both my junior and senior proms. We then attended college together at Eastern Kentucky University. I studied pre vet and he obtained a masters in wildlife biology. After 2 years we found ourselves back in Ohio I switched to a vet tech major and Chris went off to work. He worked for several years at a very small fish hatchery in Xenia, Ohio. He had always wanted to be a state wildlife officer, but after going through the program 2 times and being an alternate he decided the fish business was for him. Then right before the birth of our first child in 2001 He changed jobs to the largest fish hatchery in the mid west, Jone's Fish Hatchery in Newtown, Ohio. He quickly moved up the ladder and has performed almost every job at the hatchery from driving, to treating ponds, to wildlife consulting. He is currently the production manager. He works mainly third shift (but this time of year is on first shift). He is in charge of ordering all the fish in, he deals with some of the biggest growers in the US. He unloads and loads fish for deliveries, he medicates and is in charge of the feeding program. He also helps edit the hatchery's catalog. He works long hours during the busy season six days a week. Then he usually comes home and spends most of his morning on the phone to fish producers then he is off to bed. I don't see a lot of him in the busy season, but come November he has a lot of time off and I see him lots. He does spend most of his vacation in November in the woods, though. He is an avid deer hunter. He has been hunting since he was 16. He is very good and should probably be on one of those T.V. shows. He does everything to the letter. I can't even wear hand cream to bed because he might get the smell on him. Anyway he provides our family with enough meat to last us all year long. We never buy any beef we eat all venison. We love it and it is so healthy. My husband prefers to hunt with his Hoyt compound bow but will use his muzzle loader if the season is right and the freezer isn't full yet. In fact he even named his first dog Hoyt. He also hunts just about everything else too, but not as passionately as the deer. I am proud of him because he is a huge conservationist not just a trophy hunter ( OK he does like to get a big one, who doesn't) but he tries his best to make great shots and tries to take management deer as much as possible. He is truly a very hard worker and provides all that we need. He is teaching our oldest child about hunting and conservation now and will start with our second child soon. He also helps me plan, plant, and maintain our large garden every spring. He helps with the farm chores and the kids homework. I am truly lucky. Enjoy some photos of my wonderful husband. Bet you can't wait to meet the rest of us.