Come to Our New Blog

We've got a new blog: http://misterandmissguided.blogspot.com/

After much discussion and realizing "Jones" is just too common of a blog and a lot of variations were taken I felt that a semi-unique name was something I wanted. I had a lot of thoughts but today it came to me, especially after a tiring and trying week of potty training.

I truly felt misguided by all I hoped to get accomplished this short week of being home before starting back at work. I felt that she would truly take to potty training and we would encounter a few accidents here and there. I wasn't ready for the onslaught of wet underwear one after the other.

Then more misguided thoughts I had in trying to employ all these different things I read about in how to train your toddler. I realized that I have a lot of misguided notions and thoughts on how to best do things in raising a toddler and that my toddler has her own agenda.

Thus came the thought of Miss-guided. Since I'm not the only one in this family who has thoughts that are misguided, mister only seemed appropriate to add. So enjoy our new site and I hope to modify it and add a link soon to the pictures from our trip to the UK and beyond.

Mommy Called the Dr. and the Dr. Said

Well, we're going to break away from our format that we used in the UK for the blog until we create a new blog which will be coming soon. Before that happens, I don't want to lose our "diary" of Makenna and her growth, foibles, and general mischievousness.

Saturday we were coming back from Chris's parents house and Makenna had her sunglasses but then took them off and dropped them. She promptly said, "Why did you drop your glasses?" I asked her the question back and she replied, "cause." Short, simple and sarcastic all rolled up into one.

Today, we were trying to get ready to go up to the cottage to visit with more family and she was playing with "pennies," which was the change that we save in a jar. She was placing "pennies" every where, down the laundry shoot, down her shirt, in drawers. Pretty much any where except where I wanted her to, which was back in the jar. As Chris and I were talking, I all of a sudden heard a gag like cough and looked at Makenna who had reddish eyes. I asked very sternly, "Makenna did you just swallow a penny?" Her reply...."Yes." We asked her again and again in case she didn't understand our fearful question the first time. Every time she replied "Yes." Chris then asked her to show him what she did, which I didn't think was a good idea. She picked up a penny and started to put it in her mouth. That bumped up the percentage that she actually did it a lot more.

Chris had me call the doctor even though I was fairly certain that all we have to do is wait for the day "she makes change," as my brother put it. Sure enough since she wasn't in any respiratory distress, they said just keep track of her "outgoings" to see if it passes through.

What was really ironic about the whole thing was that just earlier in the morning I was watching a show and the parent said to another parent that he didn't feel he was a "parent" unless his child swallowed a few pennies here and there. I thought that was a weird statement and a bit careless and then it happened to me. It didn't make me feel any more like a parent than before. It just taught me I can't assume that she's past that stage of putting things in her mouth.

Not to mention keeping an eye on her at the cottage. On Sunday, she very quietly sneaked out and had gotten down the steps of the porch by the time I caught her. I happened to walk into the main room of the cottage and asked where she was and it didn't take long to realize where she most likely was headed. When I caught up with her she stated she wanted to "splash" as we had previously been down at the dock and let her put her feet in the water and kick or use her hands to splash around. We gave her a stern talking to about not leaving the cottage without mommy or daddy. That didn't stop her from trying repeatedly yesterday and today. The difference was that today I kept a more diligent eye on her. Now I just have to apply that more often to all things.

22May2009: Day 361: She Ate It, She Ate It!

We woke up around 5am (as our bodies and minds felt it was 10am) plus we heard Makenna yelling, "Stuck, stuck!~" Chris went up and she had gotten her leg stuck through a wooden slat in the crib. We need to get that changed into a bed ASAP. I went back to sleep and Chris got up around 6am.

We had to get both cars done for inspection as they were expired. We also went through some mail, and went to Sam's club, of course. Sam's club missed us and our outrageous spending I'm sure. I feel surprised that they didn't fold and go under while we were away.

We grabbed a cooked chicken from there for dinner and I cooked some frozen corn. Makenna surprisingly didn't eat much chicken, maybe a bite or two, but she did eat the corn and kept asking for more. I was in shock! She hasn't eaten corn in maybe a year. I was so excited and have great hopes for the future.

We met up with some family and friends at the church to play the "Newlywed Game" which was quite fun and funny. Chris and I won...we're "oldyweds" as Chris said, but we didn't win by a landslide. In fact, it was the last 50 point question that we got extremely lucky on. Another couple was 5 points behind us and they got the question correct. I was racking my brain for what the answer could be and I guessed right! We won a Target gift card and I couldn't be more excited. I love Target and will most likely be spending it tomorrow.

21May2009: Day 360: Isn't That A Pip

Up way too early - 5am. Chris really wanted to make sure we made it for our 12pm flight. I guess it was a good thing as the motorway on the way to Heathrow did get backed up. That is one thing I will not miss--the inane way these people seem to stop for a butterfly crossing the road. I say this because all traffic seems to come to a sudden halt for no reason that is obvious (besides the fact that they don't seem to be able to merge without stopping,) and then all of a sudden, you are off and speeding again.

We had time to sit and eat a breakfast in the airport and then a little time to walk around. Makenna did really well on the plane overall. She only had about three little breakdowns and each were less than five minutes. It was mostly over her DVD player quitting as it didn't charge like we thought. So she only got about an hour's worth of play time. She was quite upset and didn't hesitate to let us know. I was able to get her to watch the movie on the plane for a small bit. Since we were near the back of the plane, I took her to the back and she got to look out the window and see the clouds and some things below. That excited her. By the last two hours of the trip she was "done." She kept saying, "done, done, off?" I explained that we had a little while longer to go and after that small melt down she calmed down and we got through it.

One thing that got me was the lunch on the plane. It was chicken with carrots and green beans and mashed potatoes. Well, Makenna actually had no problems eating the chicken...until...I thought I'd be "smart" and put a tiny piece of carrot with it. She somehow cleverly kept biting off the chicken without eating the carrot. I finally shoved the whole thing in her mouth and after a few chews, she spit the whole thing out and refused to eat any more. "Dang It!" I said.

We made it to Washington, got through customs pretty quickly, picked up our luggage, walked it 30 feet and turned it back in again. Can anyone tell me why this was necessary? Chris was not too happy that we had to pick it back up to just turn around and turn it back in for our final flight to Binghamton. They don't re-weigh it, they don't check it again, as far as we know, it's just as if we're the baggage handlers to save them money.

Anyways, since Makenna didn't eat too much at lunch, she was hungry and Chris could only find a "hot gog." She chowed this down. I was joking how we're "improving" on our food fare for Makenna...from fried chicken nuggets to the ever healthy hot dog. Great!

Got on the small plane to Binghamton with a small incident. The plane had 12 rows and one column had a single seat "A," and then across the aisle were two seats "D" & "F." Chris, some how, lucked out and had a seat in "A" up near the front of the plane. I was sent to the very last row and Makenna had an "A" and that left me, I figured, with the seat right across the aisle, as the "F" seat was taken by another person. After I got Makenna all settled in, I started to sit and another kid (probably about 12,) came to say that I was in his seat. I also thought I heard him say that I would need to go up front and find a seat. I was incredulous and very tired, saying "Oh, and what am I supposed to do? Leave her back here on her own? Why don't I just do that!?!" He walked away and I heard him say that some lady had the seat with her little child back there. In the meantime, another lady in the row before us told me that the kid had said that he would go up and find a seat. I felt bad for snapping. Makenna on the other hand, after trying and succeeding at taking off her seat belt, finally left it alone and before the plane even took off, was fast asleep.

When we got into Binghamton, we were greeted by some family and went out to eat some GOOD Chinese food. Makenna was a bit grouchy but perked up when she saw her cousin Katie. At the airport Katie's dad, my brother, said, "Katie's Crazy!" Makenna then had the best time for the next two hours saying "Katie's crazy!" When we were at the Chinese restaurant, Makenna also enjoyed following Katie's lead in standing on the table. I was like, "Makenna, you're older and need to set the example, not be the follower."

Makenna also enjoyed saying, "Isn't that a Pip." She started saying this on the car ride on the way to the airport and continued saying it on and off throughout the day. I guess that was a good way to say goodbye to England...bye ending with a typical old English saying.

20May2009: Day 359: Goodbye Gillingham

Arghh why is it your body gets no sleep in anticipation or stress of things? We were up past 2am last night making sure that everything we needed to be shipped was ready to be shipped. We had to make sure that the suitcases weren’t over 50 lbs and if they were, we needed to pick out more things to be shipped. Then, when we finally went to bed, all I could think about was what things still needed to be done before the shippers came and what cleaning was left to do. At 3:30am I looked at the clock and was like, okay body and mind, time to sleep!

Up about 7am and all the things in my mind had to come to fruition. We were able to “ship” Makenna off to Hannah’s for the morning which was a good thing. The shipper’s came about 9:30am and for the next two hours, packed our things into 30 boxes. Then we had about a half hour to finish cleaning the upstairs and moving furniture back where it was when we first got here.

Makenna enjoyed playing at the park for around two hours with Hannah and her sister and mom. She came in ravenous for lunch and was quite upset she did have her “mushroom-ham noodles.” I felt bad. That ended up being a comment I made all day today, “I feel bad.”

I at least took her to play group one last time so she could go on the bounce house and see Hannah and Bethany for the last time, with the hopes that they will meet again in the not to distant future. They gave Makenna a book called, “You Are Special” and a card to us both thanking us for coming which I thought was really nice.

We came home and she got a nap, of which I was jealous, but I wanted those shoes that I talked about so I went off shopping while Chris took a short nap then continued to get things straightened out and cleaned up around the house. No luck in finding the shoes though. I went to about ten different stores, and only one store had them and I didn’t like the colors available. I soothed my “buying” by getting my new niece Natalie a cute outfit to bring back.

When Makenna got up from her nap, she was already crying for Hannah and to go to the park. Here’s where the guilt really started to set in. I know she won’t remember Hannah after a little while but I feel like these were two souls who knew each other in the premortal existence and to now part them again breaks my heart. We at least took her to the park to ease some of the guilt.

We had a hard time dragging her away from here and when we finally started to leave, she said, “We’ll come back another time, tomorrow.” How do you explain to a young child that she won’t be coming back to this park, most likely ever again? We eased our guilt again by taking her for Chinese and ice cream.

Well, since the house was mostly cleaned and echoing as a matter of fact, I took some pictures of the rest of the house for our memories. I kind of wish now I had taken pictures of our first dinky apartment when we got here as that place was definitely a place to remember (said very sarcastically). I guess I couldn’t get out of there fast enough and didn’t want any memories at the time. At least I’ll have these.

First is the kitchen:

Then the Dining Room:

Stairs going up:

Upstairs "Purple" bathroom:

The "Guest Bedroom" - see what you missed! You could've slept in these bright colors:

Makenna's Room:

And yes, I know the picture is lop-sided - Makenna loves looking at the picture of the "beach" in her room and plays with it

Finally, the Master bedroom. This obviously has the remnants of our "stuff" to be packed so it looks a bit messy:

19May2009: Day 358: One Last BBQ

Every day it gets closer to leave, I think of reasons not to. One would be all the cleaning and packing and stress of it all. Luckily we only have to pack "things" and not furniture. Also I'm grateful that a company is coming to actually pack all of the stuff.

All of this morning was cleaning while Makenna was at nursery. Plus deciding what more to ship, give away or throw away. Tomorrow will be more of the same plus final packing of our suitcases. I was able to get Makenna's "goal" book from nursery to have so I'm super excited to read more about her progress.

I was able to take Makenna to the park after lunch to meet up with Hannah. This time they did run across the field to each other. Even though Makenna kept running straight past her to her sister Bethany. After about an hour, they both agreed that they wanted to go home and take naps.

Tonight, the neighbor across the street that Chris works with had a BBQ and invited people from Chris's work. I thought it was funny that to get the coals heated up quicker, they added a ton of lighter fluid and then used a hair dryer to get it going. That was a first, but it worked. We had a lot of food food and I enjoyed and was annoyed at the same time by Makenna wanting to go on and off the trampoline that they had.

She kept going on for a few minutes then wanting off, then going back on. This required taking her shoes on and off, thus my annoyance. To see her on it jumping gleefully was worth it though. She would jump up and down and yell, "hi daddy, hi daddy." She eventually tired of this and wanted to go inside to play with the kids (Daniel and Sophie). They kept her entertained for a bit and when it was dinner time, she actually ate a hamburger with "sauce." In fact, she almost ate two - although they weren't very big.

Got her home and gave her a bath. Her last bath here in this tub. Then after getting her down for bed, the bishop of my church and his wife stopped by go say goodbye and give us a gift and a very nice card from the members of the church. This again gave me pause to think about leaving. I don't think I gave or invested enough time in getting to know people and kept more to myself and my routine with Makenna and now I wish I had reached out more. I guess I should take away that meeting people is a privilege and that you should invest time, no matter how short to get to know them.

18May2009: Day 357: Castell Coch & Caerphilly Castle, Wales

Last Day in Wales and our last trip in England before we return home. It’s hard to believe on some level. We headed off to the two other castles that were part of our package from Saturday that were also owned at some point by the very wealthy Bute family.

First was Castell Coch. It’s believed that there was a castle built here in the 13th century and then destroyed in the 14th century during the Welsh rebellions. Then in 1871 the 3rd Marquess of Bute came in and had the land cleared and brought in William Burgess the architect again to create another masterpiece for him. By this time, Burgess had been working for three years on Cardiff Castle.

Again, you can see some wonderful art done within the castle. This is quite a bit smaller than Cardiff but still had some pretty ornate things to it. There was also a working winch and portcullis. I thought it was kind of neat to see Lady Bute’s room, big and spacious and ornately done and then Lord Bute’s room was a shoe box by comparison and not too exciting. I think the guide Saturday at Cardiff said that Lord Bute spent most of his time in lady Bute’s bedrooms. No wonder, as they were bigger.

Makenna was pretty well behaved but anxious to go outside as it was raining and she was again dressed in a raincoat and wellies to allow her to stomp around like crazy in all the puddles she wants. When we finally let her outside she was as happy as could be as it was raining and windy so there were plenty of puddles to be splashed in. In fact, to get her to go to the next castle, we had to tell her that there were more puddles to be stomped in.

Caerphilly castle was pretty ruinous when the first Marquess of Bute took it over in 1776. The third marquess reroofed the great hall and again brought William Burgess yet again to fix this castle up. I think the only thing besides the roof that was fixed by the Bute family was a gatehouse. The rest was left as the ruins it is. The castle itself is the largest in Wales covering over 30 acres, and the second largest in England after Windsor Castle.

I think the story board outside the castle said it had something like three drawbridges and six portcullises at one time. It gives you an idea how massive this thing used to be. It’s also known because of the one leaning tower, the South-East Tower of the inner ward, which still has medieval features. They think the tower split because of “ground subsidence.”

We weren’t able to go in to the Great Hall as they were filming some BBC show there. We went to the various ruinous parts and looked around but the rain and wind kept us from really doing a thorough walk around. Plus, how much of ruins can you really see? Makenna of course enjoyed it due to all the puddles.

We left and walked to the downtown area and found a place to eat lunch. After, walked back to the car and headed back to our home in Kent. We got back a little bit after 5pm and started the usual laundry. Especially considering we only have a couple of days to do it all in.

I have to say I found the Welsh language extremely interesting. A lot of the words hardly have vowels in them. The signs in Wales have both the Welsh spelling and the English spelling. You can see some of the similarity but a lot of them you have no idea how they come up with what they do. In fact, here’s a link to a town in Wales, one we didn’t see because it’s up north, but it’s known as the second longest name known. http://www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.com/
And I have no idea how you say it, but one of the guys that Chris worked with here, comes from Wales and he can say it like it’s nothing at all.