Haircut

This weekend I was giving Paul a haircut. Using the razor I went up the back side of his head and realized that I didn't have the insert attatched. Oops! So, Paul is now completely bald! I told him that now he know's what he'll look like in 10 years. =)
Then, that night Paul went to trim his eyebrows and accidently whacked off 1/2 his eyebrow. He was so embarrassed to go to work on Mon. He's using my eyeliner to draw in his eyebrow this week. Once I can get a pic snapped I will post!

Since I've Been Gone

Here's what has been going on in the Issa household since I've been gone:

1) Luke had tubes in May...after suffering through 8 miserable ear infections this winter!

2) Paul had another kidney stone in July...two surgeries later he is fully recovered.

3) I went to Ireland in April for work.

4) We celebreated Luke's 1st birthday in June! His favorite present was his red wagon above!

5) Luke was declared to have permanent hearing loss by his ENT doctor following tubes which was later dis-proved following 6 more rounds of testing and several doc visits! The ear saga is finally over!!

6) I turned 30 in May. Ugh! Paul and I celebrated by going to a Keith Urban concert.

Other than that...we've been having a great summer! I am happy that my boys are all healthy again!

Ahh...Mexico

Paul and I just returned from Mexico! We spent a week in Peurto Vallarta at a nice hotel on the beach. We started off the trip by taking the city bus to the hotel. I asked the bus driver if he went to our hotel and he shook his head yes so we hopped on luggage and all. There were mostly Americans on the bus so I figured we were headed to the hotel district. Slowly everyone starts getting off the bus, but we aren't seeing our hotel so I dig into my bag to pull out the map. We then stop at a hotel where about 100 local workers (no joke!) hop on the bus and we look around and realize that we are the only "tourists" on the bus. I then realize that we are heading out of the hotel zone... Paul, using his broken Spanish, asks one of the locals where are we as he is pointing to the map? They can't understand each other, but by his gestures we figured out that we missed our stop and are heading in the wrong direction. So Paul is yelling at the bus driver to stop the bus so we can get off. As we get off the bus, Paul takes out about 5 guys standing in the aisle banging our luggage around. Another bus ride later, we are able to get to our hotel...2 hrs behind schedule. After that experience we decided that we wouldn't venture out too much since the point of this vacation was to relax. We layed in the sun for a week, I got a spa treatment, we walked the beach and ate great food...all at the resort. When it was time to leave, we chose to get a cab ride to get to the airport.

Water Boy

Last weekend was the annual trip up North with the Iowa State crew. It was a little different trip this year as all the couples now have babies. We had a blast catching up with everyone and watching the babies interact. We finally got Luke into a pool and he seemed to enjoy it. Hopefully he will be a waterboy like his mom!

This week Paul and I are going to be in Mexico and Grandma and Grandpa will babysit Luke. We are really looking forward to a much needed vacation. We'll miss Luke, but a week in the sun in Jan is something we can't pass up.

Worst Week Ever

In case you are wondering why you didn't get a holiday card from the Issa's this year...here's why.

Friday: I go to pick Luke up from work and upon returning to my car see that my car window has been smashed in and my purse is gone. Guess locking my car wasn't good enough...why wouldn't they just go after one of the cars that is running with nobody in it?! Meanwhile Paul is returning from work to get a call from Wells Fargo asking if I had written out a check for $800 recently...he doesn't recall anything, but then again he doesn't know all the checks that I'm writing. Geez Paul, you must really think you are getting a good Christmas gift this year! Luckily we had a teller who was on top of things and questioned the check which made the lady bolt from the bank. The lady was dumb enough to try cashing it at my bank which also had my signature on file -- which didn't match her forged signature. Being that she has all my ID's, I'm now just waiting to get arrested for trying to cash a forged check.

Saturday: Deal with filing police reports. Apparently you can't just file one police report for an incident...you have to file one for each town that activity occurred. I am now up to 4 open police reports -- some are from my two car acciedents in October. Took car in to get repaired...bummer to find out it'll be a couple days of carpooling which is always fun with a 6 month old and pokey Paul.

Sunday: Day off from worst week ever. Good thing for what's about to come...

Monday: I drop Luke off at daycare, Paul off at work. I decide to start my day off right with a call to my BFF and a Starbucks on my way to the DMV to get a drivers liscence. That dream of a good morning comes to a quick halt when my car window won't roll up after paying for my Starbucks at the drivethru window. Mind you, it's December in Minnesota which means a -25 degree windchill. Yep, it just so happens that today is the coldest day of the winter thus far as I'm driving around town trying to find someone who can fix a window for me. Jiffy Lube was no help. I finally find a Goodyear who can fix it and $350 and 6 hrs later I have a working window again. Off to the dentist to get a cavity filled...come to find out I have two cavaties. Guess I better lay off the Holiday cookies this year. Still haven't gotten to the DMV yet and it's now 3pm...don't think I'm going to make it in to work today.

Monday Evening: I'm starting to feel queezy. Dr. Paul tells me to relax or I'm going to have a nervous breakdown.

Monday 11:30pm: By now, I have managed to unload everything that was inside of me into the toilet in less than 2 hrs. As I am lying on the floor of our bathroom 10 lbs lighter (ok, that part might be made up), too weak to move, I let Paul know that I think that I might be dying and that he should probably just call 911 rather than try to take me in himself. I pass out as soon as I try to stand up. Off go the Issa's to the hosptial.

Tuesday 1am: After the Doc reviews my blood, she asks if I have Diabetes. Apparently my glucose levels are that of a diabetic person -- guess I better keep an eye on that along with my high cholesterol. Paul then politely let's the nurse know that if she needs help figuring out what's wrong with me he is starting to feel queezy himself.

Tuesday, 2:00am: Paul begins to puke while my whole body is shaking like I just had a baby. Good thing we have a nice cozy room in the ER where everyone can here us getting sick. The 80 year old next to me seemed to be having a rough night too...got staples in his head after falling down the stairs. Meanwhile, Luke remains sleeping like a baby next to my bed. Nurse tells us that we have to get someone here to get our baby (who is wearing a helmet, but that's a whole other story). The nurse gave him a double take after seeing the helmet, but didn't dare to ask what his problem was.

Tuesday, 2:30am: We have called all the phone numbers of our siblings with no answer. All that is left is my parents -- who I know will answer. I call them to tell them that yes, I am in the hospital and they need to come get their grandson because Paul and I are down for the count.

Tuesday, 3:00am: Andover Deputy Sheriff knocks on the Hartle's (my sister) door to awake them and tell them that they need to pick their nephew up from the hospital. Apparently my parents were more determined to get ahold of my siblings even if they had to do it the good 'ole fashioned way.

Tuesday: 4:00am: Luke is safe at the Hartle house...spreading all his little germs...

Wednesday: Luke goes home with his grandparents. Paul and I recover from the flu. Meanwhile, the Hartle household begins with the flu...starting with Lexi (2 yrs old) puking on the couch. Up North, Luke also is coming down with the flu, puking on his grandma. As grandma is handing him off to grandpa, grandpa ponders just licking up the mess to get his turn over with. Grandpa doesn't want to miss another Christmas due to the flu like he did 2 yrs ago. Shortly after, Grandma falls victim to the flu. Looks like Grandpa is flying solo taking care of a sick baby Luke.

Thursday: Paul and I return to work. I get 1/2 way to work [did I mention that I started a new job this week...with new people starting on Monday (3 days ago)?] and get a call from Paul. The f****** car won't start. Darn, I thought that this was going to be a good day. Back to carpooling again. I finally arrive to work at 10am just in time to receive the memo that no raises are being given out this year!

Friday: Still carpooling. As we are backing out of the driveway (in a rush) I hear a big BOOM. That could me one of two things: 1) Paul just hit a kid on his way to school 2) Paul just hit an object at the end of our driveway. Luckily, Friday happens to be trash pick up day in our neighborhood and Paul has just taken out our trash can. I get out of the car to pick up the trash that is now in the road and realize that Paul has smashed our tail light in the process. I get back into the car to tell Paul what's happened and he says: Man, I've hit that thing like 10 times, but never taken out a light. It's funny what you learn when you carpool with your spouse.

And that has been the last seven days of my life. Hope I could provide a little Holiday Humor for all of you!

Our Football Player

Luke will be 6 months this week! He has been keeping us busy lately -- he now wears a helmet because of a flatspot on his head. He looks like a little football player. Luke also is about to bust out with his first tooth. For some reason it's taking awhile to come out so he has been very frustrated the last couple days.
The other big news in the Issa household is that we now have cable television! Yep, you read that right. The deal was that Paul wanted a big screen and I said only if we get cable. What's the point of buying a nice new HD TV if you can't even enjoy it? We went all out -- DVR and all! DVR is very addicting...not sure if it's much of a timesaver because you end up watching more TV with it, but I'm not complaining. I'm just happy to have cable TV again!

Car Accidents

In the last week I’ve managed to get in two car accidents. Both of them nobody was hurt (and Luke wasn’t with me) and neither of the accidents were my fault – which is a first!! The strange thing is they happened a week apart and both of them were right by our grocery store. I guess that I must need to find a new route. First one that happened I was hit by a semi in a turn lane when he made too narrow of a turn and ran into me. That was in the BMW and it got smashed up good enough not to be drivable. The second crash -- I was in the Honda and hit by a high school girl who decided to put the car into reverse when she got ½ way into the intersection at a 2 way stop and rammed back into me. I didn’t call the cops which was in hindsight stupid because now it is just her word versus mine. What’s a couple more scratches on the bumper going to hurt?! Anyways – I hope that now I have fulfilled my car accident quota for the next 20 years…