Geocaching Anyone?

I am addicted. If you don't know what geocaching is, let me lay it out for you. It is a giant scavenger hunt that combines nature and technology. Who doesn't like a good scavenger hunt and a little competition? Using a GPS unit, you enter the waypoints of a cache location which you can get from www.geocaching.com. Then you just let the GPS lead the way. Once your unit "zeros out" you just start looking. Most of them are located in parks and off little nature trails, but some are what we call "urban" caches. Those are the most fun because you don't have to bushwack through trees and thorns to find the treasure.
What kind of treasures...well that is where it can get tricky. Sometimes it is just a paper log that you sign and date saying you found it. Others are camoed containers holding little toys and gadgets that you can trade or just take. Great fun for the whole family...even Dakota loves it!
As you can tell from the pictures on the side, we have found some pretty cool ones (57 total). There are lots of people who have found thousands of these caches all over the world. (There are almost 800,000 geocaches in the world!)
I was 9 months pregnant when we found the caches pictured on this blog and we haven't been since Bailey's arrival. I am having withdrawls, but hopefully we will get back out there soon! Let me know if you are a fellow cacher, or if you want to become one!

Poor, Poor Dakota

As some of you may or may not know, Dakota had what we have been calling "an episode" at the stroke of midnight New Year's Eve. Basically it resembled a seizure, and it had Nick and me frantically scrambling to get out of our pajamas (yes, we were in our pajamas at midnight on New Year's Eve) and en route to the TAMU Small Animal Hospital. BUT, thankfully he snapped out of it after a minute or so. After monitoring him for an hour or so, he seemed to be fine. He was definitely shaken up, but he was for the most part back to normal.
On a recent visit to Dr. Bond's (our vet) office for his regular round of shots, Nick mentioned his "episode" and Dr. Bond said that Dakota might have Epilepsy. He said TAMU can do head scans for a couple thousand dollars, or we can just wait and see if it happens again. We chose the latter and thankfully he hasn't had another seizure. Apparently the way they diagnose Epilepsy in dogs is through exclusion. That means they test for a whole bunch of other things and if those tests come back negative...it must be Epilepsy. Now the only weird thing he does is repeated licking at the air. We call him Lizard Licker and Epileptic Eddie. Poor baby, not only does he have Epilepsy, but he also has a new baby sister that he has to put up with day in and day out. He is such a good boy, and we pray that stays with us for many, many years to come!

My first Post

So I have officially joined the World of Blogging. I fought it off as long as I could, but after hearing numerous requests for updated Bailey pictures and daily activities, I decided a blog would be the easiest way to appeal to the masses. So here it goes.

January 20, 2009 is when it all began. Nick and I went to the hospital at 5:00 am ready to be induced. After checking in and the initial evaluations, we were ready to get started. I was placed on the contraction monitor. After an hour or so, the nurses decided Bailey was not reacting enough to the contractions. My doctor came by, we talked and then they broke my water. After they broke my water, the contractions were AWFUL! At first I thought I just had a high pain tolerance, but I was oh so wrong! Finally, I got an epidural and all was back on schedule. Bailey started reacting well, heartbeat was good and things were looking positive. Still no pitocin for me because at this point I was dilated to an 8 and they were still monitoring our progress. About an hour later, out of nowhere, Bailey's monitor started jumping around like crazy. The nurse came running in and asked what happened. Nick and I just looked at each other like, "What do you mean?" She immediately started ordering other nurses to get the doctor and to prep for a C-Section. From what I understand, Bailey was trying to come out but every time she moved she sabotaged the umbilical cord. Approximately 30 minutes later, at 11:23 am, little Miss Bailey Morgan Blake was born via C-Section. Turns out the cord was wrapped around her leg and she was sitting on it like a swing. Silly little girl. I think she was trying to use it as a jump rope since that was the unit were doing in my PE classes at school.

What we felt...I don't know that I can completely explain it with words. We went through so many emotions in the 5 hours we were waiting for Bailey's arrival. We were nervous, excited, scared, anxious, worried and then...when you hear that little cry. The sound every parent loves to hear during birth and then wishes to never hear it again. When Nick and I heard Bailey cry for the first time in the operating room, we just looked at each other and the tears started streaming. We were finally parents. Holy crap, we ARE parents!

Today Bailey is four weeks old. She is perfect in every way. I still have a hard time believing that she is ours. I think my Mom said it best when she said, "And if you could have gone to the store and picked one out, she is exactly what you would have picked!" I couldn't have said it better myself.