Sunday, January 29, 2012

Jack is Fourteen Months!

Jack, you are fearless. You scare me. Your shins & forehead have perma-bruises from your constant climbing and falling. I found myself laying in bed a few nights ago worrying that someone would accuse me of beating you. I guess that you're just a little bit daring like your Aunt Kirby.

You are starting to stand without holding on so I'm thinking we'll have a walker soon, which I am positive that I could live without. I won't lie. You are already quite the handful and I cannot imagine you being any busier.

You are mischievous and bright. This month you added "bite", "light", and "birdie" to your vocabulary this last month. It's nice that you are more able to communicate because it means less fussing and frustration on both our parts.

You love life, Jack.
You love to stand underfoot help in the kitchen when mama cooks dinner.
You love to splash in the bathtub.
You love to smile and laugh when mama says "no".
You love to eat and feed yourself.
You love to dance.
And, I love watching you enjoy life.



Grandparents: Jack is almost into 18M clothes. Size 5 shoes. He looks adorable in hoodies.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Yucky Yuck!


Dedicated to Rachel. In her time of need.

I was hired by University Place Presbyterian Church so quickly that I moved to Tacoma without a place to live. Luckily, my cousin owned a house in the area and Jimmy let me temporarily hijack his living room. I struggled to find a decent place that would allow for my 80lb monstrosity of a dog fit my criteria. Gradually, I became the annoying cousin that overstayed her welcome until…

One day, Jimmy called me and asked me to pick up a mouse trap from the store. I came home with an arsenal of every rodent trap known to man. Jimmy laughed at the overkill, and assured me that we probably didn’t have mice.

As I lay on the floor that night, I tried to convince myself that I was hearing the house creaking and not the scurrying of little feet. Suddenly, I heard a mousetrap go off in the kitchen… and, a scrape sound as the mouse dragged the trap behind him.

I rushed into Jimmy’s room, jumped onto his bed and screamed like a crazy lady about the kitchen. Jimmy, in a sleep induced stupor, tried telling me to go back to bed. After several more moments of jumping up and down on his bed, Jimmy realized that he needed to go investigate. While I guarded his bedroom from atop my post, Jimmy stalked into the kitchen. I heard a loud WHAM! And, after a couple seconds, two more. WHAM! WHAM! Jimmy had finished the mouse off with a large boot.

Without so much as a word, Jimmy hauled my mattress into his room for the night. I had a new apartment within two days and I didn’t stay at Jimmy’s during those 2 days. In hindsight, I’m starting to wonder if it was Jimmy’s plan to get me out all along…

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Teaming Up to Battle Cancer



Dad with his favorite only grandson, Jack.
The following is an article I wrote for some Midwest papers about my dad:

Jim Treiber is a caring man, nurse and father of four. A local boy, he graduated from LCHS in 1978 then received a degree in Plastics Engineering Technology from PSU. He received his nursing degree from Eastern Oklahoma in 2005 with a desire to care for others. Treiber is currently employed by McAlester Regional Health Center.  

But early this Fall Treiber was given news of his very own medical battle.  By October he underwent surgery to remove both his tonsils where cancer was found originated. Throughout November and December, Treiber traveled five hours each weekday in order to receive chemo & radiation treatment in Oklahoma City. Now he is scheduled to undergo a neck dissection with up to a five inch incision, which will hopefully remove the remainder of the tumor on January 31st.

Meanwhile, he remains on unpaid sick leave. His family & friends are holding a fundraiser to help alleviate Nurse Jim's financial burden. Please consider purchasing one donation ticket for $5 or three tickets for $10 for the chance to win $500 in cash. All proceeds will go to helping Jim and his family pays for his travel, medical stays and procedures.  Jim is a football fan so appropriately the winning ticket will be drawn on Superbowl Sunday, Feb 5th.

Tickets may be purchased from Treiber’s sister, Carolyn Waugh, at 620-515-3314.  Or, an online donation via Paypal may be sent to westcoastseaglass@hotmail.com.

Thursday, January 19, 2012