Breakdown in America

Okay.. So I got to go back to Oceanside this last weekend, which was a good break from desert life and I enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time with some of the people who are close to my heart. So I was supposed to meet up with everyone at about 1 so we could all drive back together and be back here in Yuma by 6.. but the guys who took the van were two hours late, so I ended up waiting for them in the parking lot for about two hours before we finally got on the road to head back here. Now about half way between San Diego and Yuma, the van breaks down.. :-) So we sat on the side of the road for about an hour and a half waiting for theguys from Yuma to come retrieve us, and during the wait something odd happened. A state patrolman came up behind us and offered to 'PUSH' the van to the next gas station so we could wait in more safe and comfortable condtions. We give him the okay, and he put his grill to our back bumper and pushes us two maybe three miles to the next shell station. First of all, I'd like to state I've never ever heard of this happening before and am THRILLED that it did.. primarily because there happened to be Subway there :-), but also because the cars passing us were only about a foot away from the van and were going between 80 and 90. Secondly, I wonder if there are some legal liabilities if we had been hit while he pushed us.. or he accidently pushed us off the very steep embankment to our right. I imagine that there would be, which I think is why I have never heard of a policeman pushing a car to an advantageous position, rather than instantly calling a tow truck. I recently heard a story that happened on the east coast, with a doctor who witnessed a bar fight, and used a tracheotomy on the spot to save one of the combatants lives. Apparently one had crushed the other's windpipe (or something) with a pool stick. The Doctor reacted quickly, sterilized his steak knife and cut open his thoat using the head of his pen to hold the air way open. Twenty minutes later the ambulance finally arrives and those on the scene proclaimed he would have died had the doctor not acted. The man sued the doctor, not because of an infection, which there was none, but because the doctor had consumed a level of acohol, which might have put his life at risk. What in the world... who does this?! We in America need to embrace heroes like this.. men who go out of their way to help others, not stab them in the back just because we are able to. I'm kinda interested in what Maria thinks about that scenario (which I'm not sure is a real case, but I have no doubt that in America it could happen).
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Well It was Bound to Happen One Day or Another

I went to pick up my daughter out of her crib this morning and as I opened the door I took a whiff. It smelled like poop...a lot. Occasionally it smells like poop in her room, but never this bad. And then I saw it, on the crib, on the wall, on the floor, on my baby girl, on her dollies, and on the noise maker. I am really glad Steven didn't go to work last night. Read More...
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At the Pumpkin Patch

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3 Weeks of Vacation

So Steven's suppose to get 3 weeks off when Felicity's born. All I can think about that is wow, that sounds like an awesome vacation, neither Steven or I will be working for 3 weeks. I know we'll have a newborn, but there's no way we can be more sleep deprived than we already are...or at least I hope not because that would be REALLY bad.

p.s. 3 more working days for mom, yeah!
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Steven and Märia as Babies

Come on, were we not cute babies? That's how come Seporah came out so gorgeous and Felicity's bond to come out as a knock out.

steven preschool

mar cute cheeks may 87 Read More...
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Music Preferences

So I have tickets tonight for a Fountains of Wayne concert. Steven and I bought them last month when we found out they were going to come here. I don't know what I was thinking because there is no way I'm going to a rock concert at 36 1/2 weeks at 8 at night. I'm not even going to go to a orchestra concert with padded seats at 3 in the afternoon at this point.

Yeah, we really like music, a lot, it's playing 24/7 at our house. We have 6,690 songs on our iTunes playlist and the top 12 most played songs are all by the same artist-30 Seconds to Mars. I can listen to the one CD by them over and over and over again. This morning I woke up at 4:30 and couldn't go back to sleep (again). I got out of bed and decided to do some mindless surfing on the internet. Apparently the CD I have is the second CD, they actually have one before that one. All I could think was, why did I not know this?

Kids, yeah, they change your music. No concerts and no unimportant music knowledge stored in your brain. Unless you count the piece of knowledge that the 5th song on the Baby Einstein CD "On the Go" is the song playing during the race scene in Baby Einstein's "Numbers Nursery." Well at least I still know what I like and it's not all from the decade I was born in.
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OK, We're Good for Another Year

There are many Manly things that Steven is quite good at:
1. Being a Daddy - there's this shirt that I found that says "Real Men Change Diapers," if that's true, Steven's as real as they get.
2. Being a Mr. Mom - the pictures showing the before and after carpet cleaning ought to be enough to prove that one
3. Anything with the Computer - I am so glad I don't have to pay to have someone fix the computer, I just say fix it

However, there's some Manly things that Steven's not so good at:
1. Plumbing - the kitchen sink has leaked the entire time we've lived here
2. Sports - He likes to play, but doesn't watch them on TV, which I am soooo glad for
3. Car Stuff - and that is what this post is actually going to be about

So I've been bugging Steven to do the car stuff for months, literally. You're suppose to have a safety inspection every year and the sticker on the car says it's been expired since April. Since the car needed registered this month, the safety inspection HAD to be done. It's one thing to drive the car illegally by having a safety inspection expired, you can claim ignorance due to being in the military and just really not knowing. It's another thing to drive the car illegally by having an expired registration, I think they can put you in jail for that one. And since we've been pulled over multiple times to get it fixed and our home association keeps putting notes on our windshield (why is it their business anyways), I figured it really better get done.

I had planned on having Steven fix everything sometime this month (I was anticipating Halloween, that would be October 31st, the last day possible), but I lost my driver's license sometime in the last 2 weeks (I think that Seporah threw it away) so I figured I might as well do it since I had to go to the DMV anyways. But first things first, must get the safety inspection because no one will give me anything without it done. I go to a place that looks like a junkyard, pay the $20 and say let's get it started. They check all the lights and everything and say sorry, we can't give you the sticker, you don't have a license plate on your front bumper. There's no place to put a license plate on my front bumper and I only have one anyways. Well you're just going to have to buy another set of plates and a bracket to hold it on, here's a temporary form you can use to get the license plates and thanks for the money. To the DMV I go, however, this was Saturday and it's not open, I have to go to another that's 30 miles away.

I stand in line to get a driver's license as mine is gone. Sorry ma'am, you can't get one since you lost it and such, you need to take a written test, but you can't take it here, you have to take it at the one that's closed today. Ok, well can I have a book to study Hawaii Laws. No ma'am, you have to buy them, they're sold at Borders or Barnes and Nobles. WHO ON EARTH HAS HEARD OF BUYING THE STATE LAW BOOKS? HELLO! THEY'RE SUPPOSE TO BE RIGHT THERE AT THE DMV. Fine whatever, here's $6 at Borders for the dumb book. But while I'm at the DMV, let's get the car re-registered and license plates, that'll be $158, Lord Almighty, you've got to be kidding me.

Now to the Dodge dealership to get a bracket so I can attach the license plate on the front and get a safety inspection. What do you mean parts and services are closed on Saturdays, what am I suppose to do? Back to safety inspection place, would you just sign it, look I've got 2 plates now, but they're closed. Sorry ma'am, you can go to an auto parts store down the road. To there, sorry ma'am you'll have to go to the dealership. ARGGG! Screw that, home I go.

Monday morning, to the commissary I go, we're down on food, pulled over again. Ma'am do you know you're safety inspection is expired. I better get this done today. Calling the dealership because I don't want to drive down there again. Calling the dealership again since they're not answering and it's 10:30am. calling again, and again, and again, and again, and again seven times total. Yes, I need a license plate bracket, hmm let me check, what's your model, year, VIN number. Why do you need my VIN number? Sometimes the models are different, I just wanted to check what yours was. Well why didn't you just ask for that first if you were going to look up my specific car anyways? OK, yes ma'am we have one in stock, it's $46.61 plus installation. WHAT? FOR A PIECE OF PLASTIC? And how much is installation. I don't know let me transfer you to Service....ring....ring....ring.....ring, no one's answering, screw this. STEVEN! make it so I can get the license plate on the front bumper without spending an arm and a leg.

Steven did fix it, it took $4, big screws and bolts and tiny fingers going in between the air intake holes. Good, back to safety inspection place. The guy looks at it and says "Could you have gotten the bolts any bigger?" Haha, just put the sticker on and leave me alone.

So the car's registered and has a safety inspection. I still don't have a driver's license, but after looking over the booklet and decided I didn't want to take a test, I've been out of school for too long, I'd fail it even I knew the stuff in the book. So I sent another check and various things to Washington to get me one. I'm expecting it in the next 5 weeks, I'm just hoping I don't get pulled over again. If anyone would like to take it to go get the oil changed, I would be very grateful. I'm sure we could work out a Manly exchange, like Steven'll fix your computer for you or change your kid's diaper. Read More...
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1/2 Yuma, 1/3 Army blinkage, 1/6 self proclimation and finger pointing

Hello Hello.. I interrupt this message of parenthood with small insignficant details regarding the life of recently desert-ed, Jason Rushing.

I would like to note that there is a distinct - between Desert and the ED part of the word. This is so as not to confuse you with the idea I might have recently been broken up with, evicted, or left entirely by myself. Now you just have to wonder if I've been given a sweet, tasty treat or if I've been brought out to where there is lots of beach and lack of water. Those of you 'in the know' should easily figured out that the correct answer was actually the latter. I am currently in the Yuma Proving Grounds in the desert of Arizona. I am happily hiding away from my parent command for a month here testing out some new vehicles the Army will be using in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom 15-2. Unfortunately due to some kind of secrecy form I unwittingly signed during a medical exam earlier in my career, I can not discuss this any further.

To spend a mere second bringing you up to date I will cover July to October in a few sentences. Was late to work, and got threatened to lose my BAH. Went on vacation with Breanna and saw Ashley up in Wyoming.. stopped by and saw Julie on the way home. She's just as cute as ever. On the way there I ran the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge marathon.. and moaned and cried for days, in which Breanna made fun of me for. I went to the Rifle range and got kicked off because admin marines can't count... darn asvab waivers! Got slated to goto Yuma Sept 5th.. got canceled.. Went BACK to the rifle range and received my all time low score of Marksman, and then my date moved back to the 18th of October to goto Yuma. Was late again, they tried to take away my BAH and the CO told them where they could stick it.. and that he wished he had 20 marines like me.. OH yeah!! Then the next day was brought to Yuma and have been here ever since.

Let me tell you a story about the army guys here in yuma though, okay? :-) So I come into the tiny MWR we have here with 6 computers and a mediocre television with cable and start typing out an email on one of the computers. There is an army guy who has unplugged one of the "marine" computers and dragged the cable to the tv so he can hook up his laptop and play Lord of the Rings Online while watching tv. My SSgt sees this and goes over to yell at him only to find that he is the Company Commander of the army group here. So we lost this fight.. After about twenty minutes he comes back to put the cable back and I asked him why he didn't use the wireless router to play with his own computer.. I pointed at the wireless router being on one of the shelves. He informed me.. quite rudely.. that it wasn't working correctly and he had spent the morning trying to figure it out, but he didn't have the login information for roadrunner to be able to receive the correct domain information. I gave him what must have been a "you have no clue what you're talking about" look and hooked up the router. I then used his laptop and adjusted the settings to distribute ip address to any and all laptops who requested one (he had it set on static instead of dynamic). I pulled the cable and asked him to try and connect via wireless and see if it gave him a working ip address. He tried.. it worked.. and this is what he said...

get ready for this.. it's gonna be good..


"Ya, it's working!! That's what I like to call Joint Task Force!! You definately get the assist on this one" And puts his hand up to high-five me..

*blink* *blink*... joint task force?? the ASSIST??!!

Now I high-fived him because he's a company commander and the biggest geek I know.. more so for the first than the second.. for fear of making enemies. That's your boy, Steven :)


So ya.. I hope everyone is having a blast.. I miss you all terribly, and hope to see you soonish. and HECK no, I'm not going to Florida, Minnesota, or Okinawa for Christmas.. so don't ask!!


Jason Rushing
Supreme Jedi Emperor of the Klingon Nation, engaged to the Child-like Princess, vowed enemy of Gargamel.

(P.S. All spelling and grammar mistakes were added by steven to try and boost his branch of service's image by comparison.. )
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Carpet Cleaning!

101_3242So today has been cleaning and chores day. I did the dishes this morning while Märia went out to take care of car registrations and such things... I will let her tell you that story, it isn't pretty. =) So when she got home we decided to clean our carpet for the first time ever. I mean, we had each spot cleaned it with the spray carpet cleaner several times, but we had never gone all out with a machine. So here are some fun before and after pictures! It really was amazing!
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36 Weeks and Counting

Yeah so I am 36 weeks today! Less than a month till my due date. I'm telling Felicity anytime is fine with me. I'm like today is fine, tomorrow is fine. If you really wanna hang out till November that's fine too, but Mom's cool with now. Especially now that the only way I sleep is with the aid of tylenol and benadryl and I'm still waking up 3-6 times a night with it. I tell people I was more sleep deprived before giving birth to Seporah than after and they don't believe me. But by the time she was born I literally woke up every 45 minutes to pee, If I made it an 1 1/2 hours straight I was like yes! So I'm just not looking forward to that and I'm like dude you can come out.

Yesterday I got floated to the Pediatric Clinic at work. It was really quite nice, they really didn't need the help, they just needed an RN. So mostly I just sat all day for my title. I was like ahh, this is the life. I want the next 5 shifts to be just like this one (5 more and I'm on maternity leave). Of course, I'm glad nothing went wrong where I would have had to actually use my title. It was just nice.

In case you haven't noticed, I'm just plain rambling. It's easier to type and ramble than do actual work, like the dishes or something to that effect. I plan on rambling for the next 2 months. I'll probably say nothing important here for the next 2 months because I'm too pregnancy brain (and then new momma brain) to think of something intelligent or coherent. Good thing for spell check or you wouldn't even be able to read it probably. I kinda feel bad for Jason's friends who come looking at the blog. Instead of seeing what's happening in Southern California, they get to read about some whiny pregnant lady and they're like "what is this, did Jason give me the wrong link?"
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Apple Video

Okies, So we bribe our daughter to learn new words. Sue us. =)

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A New Way to Show Boring Home Videos!!!

So we no longer have a still camera due to it getting knocked around....a lot, insert cute toddler fingers. But Dad did get a video camera that's meant to take quick videos for youtube. I've never been one for youtube, but it's pretty easy. Note that there are several videos in this player, when the first video is over, you can select from the others.

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A Long, Long Time Ago

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I'm not exactly sure how old Seporah is in this picture, but I just thought I'd post it to show how much has changed.

1. She's sitting still-that sure doesn't happen anymore
2. The shirt she's wearing has no stains-um yeah right, I just did laundry, she's a messy girl now
3. The carpet's white-I'm now not sure what color to call the carpet
4. All the toys are not only in one room, they're in one place-mmhmm
5. She's cute as cute can be-well that one's still the same Read More...
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I Could Really Use a Pediatric Nurse Blog

Yeah, so today wasn't a good day at work. I went looking for a pediatric nurse blog. I found blogs from ER nurses, labor and delivery nurses, OR nurses, student nurses, male nurses, med-surg nurses, but no pediatric nurses. I'm like man, it would just be nice to read someone else's failures and successes who knows what working on a pediatric med-surg floor was like. Read More...
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Two Mentos Peas

Dad got a new toy:

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Feed the Pregnant Lady

There are times when living far away from family really sucks. Take when you're 34 weeks pregnant and tired and hungry. Now if I lived close to Grandma and Grandpa, I could drive over say feed the pregnant lady and I'd get food auto-magically, plus someone else would play with the toddler for free (when the going rate is $7/hour, it's just tough to justify getting a sitter to take a nap). Not only that but if I looked really sorry, someone might even offer to come do my dishes. Instead the house is trashed, Seporah is crawling over tired mommy and daddy and daddy is going to get Mexican pick up on a Sunday (FYI, we usually don't do that on Sunday, but I'm like, whatever just as long as it shows up and the only finger I have to lift is the one holding the fork). Read More...
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The Case of the Missing Fingernail Clippers

Fingernail clippers all over the house are disappearing at an alarming rate. I will defend this last pair. I put it down on the dresser next to the bed. I blink. I blink again. They are gone. The Clipper Culprit has struck again!

I will catch her. Suspect: 3 foot 1 inch blonde female, about 28 lbs. Cute, when she wants to be. She denies it of course, but I will catch her.

First step, find another pair of Fingernail clippers. This is a failure, and I am forced to head to the local hardware store and purchase a new pair. I put them down on the foot of the bed, and wait. I go around the corner of the room, and I wait. Ahh, there she is. The Clipper Culprit waddles in, and grabs them. She looks around to see if she is being watched. I look away. She finds the nearest drawer and hides them under some clothes, looking around the whole while. Busted!
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10 Things I'm Going to Get Around to Doing This Year (in no particular order)

1. Go Surfing-I have lived on this island for over a year and a half, but with a newborn and pregnancy and everything else, I just haven't gone. However I am going to go this summer. Because you just can't live in Hawaii for 3 years and not try surfing at least once (well, Steven has no intention of trying, but that's him).

2. Get My Wisdom Teeth Removed-they really should have come out a long time ago but didn't. I actually had an appointment for it last April, but then I was pregnant and well they won't pull them on a preggo lady. So the plan is this January.

3. Get My Tonsils Removed-they really, really should have come out a long time ago but didn't. I'm planning on May.

4. Breastfeed for a Year-would have maybe done this with Seporah, but I stopped when I got stuck with a dirty needle for fear that I'd give her something.

5. Learn to Make a Quiche-I really love them and I just haven't found a restaurant around here that makes them, so I'm just going to have to learn to make it. I checked out some recipes but haven't found one I like, so if someone has a favorite quiche recipe they use send it my way.

6. Go Camping on the Beach-we've been saying we were going to do this forever, but haven't. It looks like this may be the first one I'm actually doing, this Tuesday in fact (that's actually why I decided to make the list, because there's so much you think hey I'm gonna do that and don't, like EMP and The Space Needle in Seattle, I never went to either and I lived there for 11 years, hello?).

7. Get a Real Family Picture-We never got a real one with the three of us and I kept saying we should, but we didn't. However we're getting one with the four of us. I'd also like to get Seporah, Felicity and I all white dresses and get a mommy/daughter picture. When Felicity is a little older and more photogenic, I was thinking around Easter, plus little white Easter dresses are oh so cute.

8. Put My Hair in a Ponytail-true I've done this before, but not in years, it's been too short. I haven't cut it since last October and I figured 12 months would give me enough time to grow it out for a ponytail, alas that is not the case. Some of my hair is long enough for it, but most of it isn't, it's really layered, there's a good 6 inches between the shortest and longest layers due to the way it's grown, hopefully in the next 12 months it'll be long enough, if it's not, I swear it's getting chopped off.

9. Learn to Juggle 2 Babies, Full Time Work and a Husband in the Military-yeah, um, no explanation needed.

10. Start Potty Training Seporah-becauses 2 kids in diapers is expensive and annoying. Read More...
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Slight Dilemma

So I have a slight dilemma, I am going to have 2 little girls, which means I need "Big Sister/ Little Sister" T-shirts. However I don't want them to just say big sister and little sister, I want them to be humorous. So I need some ideas, cause the ones I'm coming up with are kinda lame, ie:

Boss
Grunt

Why?
Because?

I'm the smart one.
That's what she thinks.

You may be the princess, but I'm the queen ~The Big Sister
You may be the queen, but I rule the throne ~The Little Sister Read More...
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I Gripe Too Much

So Steven says I gripe too much about my work, so here I am listing the positives about my work (and there are a lot). I may not have huge flexibility with maternity leave, but as for my schedule, I have serious amounts of flexibility. After Felicity's born, I will work full time and not work Sundays, that just doesn't happen in a hospital position and the only reason I can get it to happen is because I work in a military hospital and they make the soldiers work every Sunday. I like my job and the people I work with with (for the most part), that should be reason enough really since there are so many people who hate their jobs. I get paid good money, I may have to pay a lot for babysitting and such, but I know plenty of women who work and essentially their whole paycheck goes to babysitting or daycare. I don't get called off unless I want to, another really good thing, when I worked in Georgia, I'd sign up for a 40 hour week and sometimes only work 16 hours because of patient census being too low, and when you need the money, that's not cool. Because I work 12 hour shifts, I only have to work 6 days in a 2 week period to be full time, most people have to work 10, I guess this goes along with flexibility, but it's really nice with babies and kids. I work in a great place, I'd take my daughter's there if I had to, the hospital in Georgia I wouldn't have, it was bad. Occasionally (not very often but sometimes), I get to go to work and I get paid to color or play board games with kids (this one may or may not work because some people go to work and surf the internet or play games on the computer all day long). When I go back to work I'll have not only have a hospital grade breast pump at my disposal, but a breastmilk fridge to store breastmilk in (I may not have the time to pump some days, ouch, but it's there, at least I won't have to pump in the bathroom).

BTW, I think the reason why I write pessimistic blogs is because they turn out funnier usually, plus I think positive ones all sound like I'm bragging, but while we're on a happy-life-is-grand blog I thought I'd tell a cute story that happened yesterday. The past couple months I've been craving mint Mentos, yeah it's weird. Seporah has come to know what the package looks like and she loves them. Well I took a package out yesterday to take with me to work and Seporah saw. She reached up her hand and said "Peas, peas!" (she can't quite say please correctly, it's totally cute). I really didn't want to share, but if you'd seen how cute she was, you would have given her what ever she asked for. So I held up one finger and said, "All right you can have one, but only one." She held up two fingers and said "TWO!" Read More...
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Maternity Leave

So I know I've griped about maternity leave before, but I'm gonna do it again. Yeah, maternal health sucks in this country and maternity leave sucks as well. Do you know Ethiopia has a better maternity leave plan than we do? ETHIOPIA?!?! They get 90 days paid leave, we only get 12 weeks unpaid. And you know what, I don't even get that cause I work in a military hospital and all military people get 6 weeks off. So they're like you want 6 weeks right, and I'm like NO, anyways it ends up being 10 1/2 weeks. But depending on when Felicity decides to show up it could be when she's 6 weeks old. I mean at 6 weeks most infants still wake up 4 times a night. Imagine waking up 4 times a night for 30 minutes each and then going to work a 12 hour shift (and that's on your feet all day, where a lot of times your customers, ie parents and patients, expect you to wait on them hand and foot). Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Everyone needs to pray for me that Felicity is born between November 2-12, I'd really like November 5th if anyone wants an exact date to pray for (she'd be 10 weeks old when I went back to work then). Oh and no c-section, because I have no desire to recover from major abdominal surgery, care for a newborn and go back to work seriously sleep deprived. Read More...
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