Snowed In!

After listening to my Chicago friends complain all winter about how much snow they are getting this winter, I am thrilled that it finally found us here!  We had back to back snow days and lots of time to play outside in the white stuff.  

Not sure what this look is--tough snow princess, maybe??

Some of you will recognize this face as Amelia's "crazy" face

Since my work cancelled school on Tuesday, I got to stay home with Amelia all day.  Granted, this is how I spend most days, but regardless of how old I get, snow days are still incredibly exciting to me!  There wasn't a whole lot of snow on the ground (you can still see the grass in the pictures), but it was enough!  It was terribly cold, so after 25 minutes of getting ready, we actually only spent about 10 minutes outside!  But those 10 minutes were full of activity!

Like checking out the (not so) snow-covered slide

And looking around inside her playhouse.  

Eating snow has by far the favorite activity of the day, though!

We lucked out on Wednesday when Jason's work was called off!  We had yet another opportunity to play outside and since it had snowed even more, this time the grass WAS covered!

We started with a snowball fight!

Then Amelia decided she wanted to "shovel" snow like Daddy.  So, she filled up her bucket (just breaking them in for the beach, you know).

And what better to do with a full bucket of snow than to dump it on our face in the hopes of getting a flake or two in our mouth.

Mission Accomplished!

Playing Catch Up

Man, oh man have we been busy around these parts!  There's lots going on, so much in fact, that I won't even be able to cover it all in this post.

But first things first, you may be wondering about how the big girl bed transition is panning out.  And I am happy to report that things are going well!  Other than the very first morning that involved an ungodly early wake up, Amelia has stayed in bed every morning until at least 7 AM every morning.  Naps have been a different story, however.  She has napped most days since transitioning to the bed, but not without major struggles.  I have been back and forth about whether to let her give up naps or not.  (She has made it perfectly clear that that is her preference).  Remember that rule about not getting out of bed?  Seems as though Amelia thought that to be only temporary and has since ignored the rule at all costs.  On most days, she would finally give up the battle around 3:30 and then awake at 5:00 which, at times, made for an interesting bedtime.  Knock on wood, however, the last two days have been fairly smooth sailing with the naps.  In fact, she fell asleep 2.5 hours ago and I've yet to hear a peep from her.  Let's just saw a certain princess or two has helped her feel motivated to stay in bed.

Also, in other Amelia news, she started using the potty like a pro!  Something seemed to click and she started pooping and peeing like no one's business--sometimes 2 or 3 times a day.  She was going pretty consistently for about two weeks.  As you can imagine, this was very exciting for everyone and I wonder if we perhaps made too much of a deal out of it because now for the past week she has done absolutely zero pooping or peeing on the potty!  I certainly don't want to push it, so I am still letting her lead the way--which evidently right now is away from the potty.

In other news, I have been working on my LIST OF 101 THINGS TO DO IN 1001 DAYS and although I haven't actually completed anything yet, several items are in the works.  The first item that will most likely get crossed off is #10 Take Amelia to Disney World.  I knew I wanted this on my list way before we actually planned our trip (about 3 weeks ago), so don't think I included it only because I knew we were going to go.  We scored a great deal on travelocity and leave in less than 2 weeks.   We are all very excited and are fortunate enough to have GG and Grandma Ward joining us on this trip.  The plan right now is to spend one day at Sea World, one day at Disney World, and one day at the beach (this is, of course, subject to change).  I'm sure you will be hearing MUCH more about it!  This weekend will be devoted to getting everything ready for the trip.  After a snowy, cold day like today, our trip to Florida is sounding better and better every minute!

Animal Tricks

Have I mentioned how much I love my new cookie cutters?  They have worked miracles on more than one occasion to get Amelia to eat the delicious food her mom prepares for her.  The latest trick?  Some caged zoo animals!

The lion and elephant are quesadillas.  The "bars" are string cheese and the top and bottom rails are made from breakfast bars.  I'll leave out the part about the animal droppings that we added in post picture.

Granted allowing a lion and an elephant to share the same cage would have disastrous, but Amelia did seem to notice a bit as she gobbled it all down!

Yes We Can!

It is so comforting to think that next time we visit DC, it will be a different city--full of CHANGE and HOPE!

Princess Sleepyhead

Or so we hoped!

Call it wishful thinking, but I was hoping that with a little celebration on Sunday night would help her fall asleep a little easier.  I am not sure that it worked, but it was sure fun anyway!

I borrowed this idea from the site, THE HOMESPUN HEART.  She had similar parties when her children slept through the night for the first time, which as many of you know is truly something to celebrate!

I set the table to look like a bed.  Amelia thought this was great!  

We ate our meal by night light only!

Amelia wore a special Princess Sleepyhead crown (for about 6 seconds).

We dined on little people (hot dogs) wrapped in blankets (croissant roles).  Each person rested his or her head on a little ravioli pillow!

For dessert, I made brownies and used my new cookie cutter sets to cut out stars and Z's. (As in ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ--Jason didn't get it at first)

After all of the excitement, we headed up to her new bed and read books together.  Then, she made a request for me to tell the Snow White story.  After that it was lights out!

You may be wondering whether our party made any difference in the way she slept on that first night.  I would guess no!  It took her about 1.5 hours to fall asleep and she  was awake at 5:20 AM the next morning!  If you know Amelia, you know she loves her sleep and this is HIGHLY unusual behavior.  

After explaining to her that the sun is still sleeping and she can't get up until it does, we didn't hear from her again until 7:30.  (I'm not sure if she fell back asleep or not, but I would think she did for at least a little bit).

Not too bad for the first night, I guess!  But, here's hoping things get better from here!

A Big Bed for a Big Girl

Well, my little girl is officially in a big bed.  

All in all, I guess the transition has gone as smoothly as what could be expected.  It is certainly better than where we were with the crib in her room.  You see, two weeks ago, I thought I heard her awake in her bed during nap time.  Assuming her nap was over, I walked in to discover her completely naked climbing back into her crib.  Inside the crib, she had already placed a new diaper, a wipes container, and a clean set of pajamas.  Apparently, she had decided to take it upon herself to change her own diaper.

Things went downhill from there.  She got smart enough to realize she couldn't exactly put on a diaper by herself.  So, during nap time, when she felt so inclined, she would take off her old diaper (poopy or not) and use about 35 wipes before putting on a new pull-up.  And along with the diaper changes came about 8 billion outfit changes.  I would go into her room to get her up from her "nap" and it would look like a war zone.  Drawers had been dumped out and turned over to use as step stools to get into off-limit items.  Various shoes and toys would be placed in the dirty clothes basket although they were neither dirty nor clothes.  The last straw was when I found the top (and the top ONLY) to a bottle of baby oil.  When I asked where the rest of it was, she told me in her pajamas drawer.  She was right, it was there, but now it was empty.  Needless to say there WERE some dirty clothes that day.

So, we headed out in search for a big girl bed last weekend and came up short.  After mentioning to my dad that I couldn't really find exactly what I wanted, he offered to make a bed for Amelia, like he had made a bed for my nephew, Andrew.  

I was ecstatic and quickly took it upon myself to find my ideal bed online.  However, given my incredible indecisiveness, I couldn't decide.  Sleigh bed or mission style?  Just headboard or footboard too?  Storage underneath?  Mattress AND box springs?  Daybed?  Loft bed?  Decisions, decisions!  

In the meantime, Amelia decided that nap time was full out playtime and things continued to decline.  Our little escape artists was pulling the same shenanigans at night too.  We would put her to bed and then 30 minutes later hear something.  We would peek in the check on her and there she would be: light on, complete with new outfit (with shoes of course), scaling her shelves to reach her princess snow globe.

So, this past weekend out we set again.  This time in search of a mattress only.  The "bed" part would have to wait.  This girl needed out of the crib pronto!  We bought a mattress, borrowed a frame, purchased some sheets (princesses, of course), a mattress pad, and rails to keep her in bed.  In the process, I located a bed I want my dad to make and he came up and took pictures and measurements at the store.

By the time we finished all of this running around, it was too late to stick her in the bed Saturday night.  But early Sunday morning, we got everything washed and set up for her. Amelia did her share to get everything put together.  Needless to say, she was giddy with excitement.  We had to wait for a long time for the mattress pad to finish drying so when I finally was able to make her bed, she asked, "Can I get on NOW, mommy?"  no fewer than 800 times.

Amelia's first interaction with the bed was for her afternoon nap.  Although we didn't expect it to be successful, we attempted it Sunday afternoon anyway.  Needless to say it was a full out failure.  Not only had she not napped for nearly two weeks, the addition of a new bed (that happened to have Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Belle on it) proved to be too much to settle down.

It hasn't been all bad news for the new bed though.  To be continued......

Mini Me

Thanks to a pretty nasty cold, Amelia and I were stuck inside for a few days last week.  Out came the play-doh, games, puzzles, and coloring books, but unfortunately that was Thursday.  On Friday, Amelia (or was it me?) had gotten bored with the same old, same old.  While I was watching Amelia play with her magnetic Melissa and Doug paper dolls, I remembered something I had recently seen in one of my parent magazines.  I decided we would try to make a life-sized paper doll!

With grand plans to eventually make a cardboard box city, we hung on to most of the large moving boxes when we came back from Chicago.  I knew these boxes would be perfect for the body.  I also kept lots of the packing paper that would work for the clothes.

I had Amelia lay down on the cardboard and traced her outline.  

Then, I cut it out and added some undergarments.  Since Amelia thought it was just okay and didn't show too much interest in it,  I decided to save making the clothes for another day.

While we were upstairs putting away some clean laundry, Amelia grabbed some of her pajamas and said we should put it on the "girl" downstairs.  So, we did!  Well, sort of.  The girl's arms aren't exactly in a position that would allow you to get a shirt on her (which was fine with Amelia since she decided to put on the Cinderella pajama shirt instead).  Shorts, though, were a different story.  Turns out Amelia and the girl are the same size, who knew?  It was fun to get her dressed and I thought it was a great idea of Amelia's!  

For now, the girl is just hanging out in the playroom, but the next time we need something to do, she will be our "go-to girl".  

Color Collage

I saw this idea on one of my favorite sites, THE CRAFTY CROW, but they found it HERE.  This was fun, although probably a little advanced for Amelia.  We broke it up into 3 different days so it ended up working out.  I bought her a couple pairs of safety scissors when they were on back-to-school clearance.  She likes to use them, even though cutting to her mostly consists on making one cut and then ripping the rest.  

We used a couple of old magazines around the house and went on a hunt for the color purple.  She was a little slow to find it at first, but she quickly caught on and she was pointing out the color purple anywhere she saw it for days! 

 We also added some purple stickers for good measure.  I love the finished project and can't wait to do another color!

So Long, Farewell

It is with great sadness that I announce that this is the last night that Amelia will be spending in her crib.  For reasons that I shall explain in an upcoming post, the transition was unavoidable despite my desires to keep her in her crib until kindergarten.

The crib, made lovingly by my dad and Jason's grandfather, traveled all the way to Chicago and back.  It will hopefully hold many babies for years to come (not necessarily all mine!).  

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic tonight so please indulge me on my trip down memory lane.  Here's a look at some of Amelia's finer moments in the crib over the last 2 years:

Amelia's first encounter with the crib.  I remember thinking that it was way too big for her!

Posing for the paparazzi after arriving in Chicago.

The crib's first home in Hyde Park.  I always loved this room!

Her first official nap in the crib.

This nap was induced by an entire day of stalking John C. Reilly who was filming a movie called "The Promotion" outside of our apartment window. Stifler (from American Pie) was in the film too, but unfortunately had done all of his shots earlier in the week.

Amelia went through a phase where she preferred to sleep sideways in her crib and let her feet stick out the side rails.

Amelia with two of her "beary" special friends.

Here we skip ahead quite a few months (apparently the crib lost its appeal as a photo op location) to a picture I took for Father's Day 2008.  Does this girl love her Daddy or what?

So, tonight ends yet another chapter of Amelia's babyhood.  I knew that one day we would pack the crib away, but I was just not prepared for it to come so fast.  If only I could figure out how to slow it all down just a little bit.

Resolution Solution

Since I LOVE lists, I am opting out of the traditional New Year's Resolutions this year and instead stealing an idea I saw a long time ago.  I loved it so much that I bookmarked it and had been thinking about it for much for 2008.  Its called 101 things in 1001 days. My thought was to start it with the new year, but I wasn't quite ready and didn't want to rush my list. I'll keep you updated, wish me luck!  So, without further ado.....

101 Things to do in 1001 Days
Official Start Date: January 16, 2009
Official End Date: October 14, 2011
Official Progress Report:  0 items completed, 0 items started, 101 items to go
(Anything that has been completed is marked in bold)

Learning Things
1.  learn to Knit
2.  Learn to sew on my new sewing machine
3.  take a pottery class
4.  take a yoga class
5.  learn to make a scrabble tile pendants
6.  knit Amelia a hat
7.  make a painting for Amelia's room

Travel Things

8.  Bet $20 on red in Vegas

9.  Dress up and go somewhere fabulous for New Year's Eve (preferably out of town)

10.  Take Amelia to Disneyworld
11.  Go to the Grand Canyon
12.  Visit family in TX
13.  Visit family in KC
14.  Visit family in Spokane
15.  Take Amelia to the beach
16.  Take a family vacation to Chicago
17.  Take Jason to Spa Shiki for a couple's spa day

Sport Things
18.  Bike the entire Katy Trail
19.  Attend a family member's school sporting event
20.  Attend a local high school softball game
21.  Run 5, 5K races (0/5)

For Other People Things
22.  Send a 'just because' care package to someone
23.  Pay for the car behind me in the drive thru lane
24.  Give my parents an outstanding anniversary gift
25.  Donate $5 to charity for every item not completed by day 1001
26.  Get over my fear and donate blood again (anyone want to come hold my hand?)
27.  Continue to support platoons by sending monthly care packages until the end of the war
28.  Make a blanket to donate to the Linus Project
29.  Write a love letter to Jason
30.  Write a love letter to Amelia
31.  Inspire someone else to do a 101 things list
32.  Send someone flowers for no reason
33.  Make Jason an amazing breakfast in bed
34.  Plan and execute a fancy picnic for Jason and Amelia

Finance Things
35.  Build up a 9 month emergency fund
36.  Change our retirement contributions to be more aggressive
37.  Become debt free except for our mortgage (car and student loans)
38.  Max out my Roth IRA one year
39.  Get a living will made
40.  Rollover retirement money from state job

Organization Things
41.  Organize laundry room closet
42.  Combine favorite recipes and compile into printed book
43.  Print out and organize 2006 photos
44.  Print out and organize 2007 photos
45.  Print out and organize 2008 photos
46.  Print out and organize 2009 photos
47.  Add captions to 2006 photos
48.  Add captions to 2007 photos
49.  Add captions to 2008 photos
50.  Add captions to 2009 photos
51.  Bring Amelia's baby book up to date
52.  Organize basement so that everything fits on two shelving units
53.  Replace bathroom carpet with ceramic tile
54.  Repaint Amelia's bathroom
55.  Have a garage sale

Food and Drink Things
56.  Host a fondue party
57.  Host a dinner part (minimum 6 people)
58.  Visit 5 new restaurants (0/5)
59.  Try out the Melting Pot

For Me Things
60.  Contact my favorite teacher to thank her for her influence on my life
61.  Identify 100 things that make me happy
62.  Have a second baby
63.  Send a secret to postsecret.com
64.  Read 100 books
65.  Attend Easter vigil
66.  Attend Stations of the Cross during Lent
67.  Apply to graduate school
68.  Take the GRE
69.  Go one week without logging in to Facebook
70.  Give up TV for one week
71.  Eat only at home for an entire month
72.  Have my body checked by a dermatologiest
73.  Get a manicure
74.  Get a pedicure
75.  Get a massage
76.  Get a facial
77.  Have 2006 blog entries made into a book
78.  Have 2007 blog entries made into a book
79.  Have 2008 blog entries made into a book
80.  Have 2009 blog entries made into a book
81.  Bring tree skirt project up to date
82.  Finish an entire Sudoku book cover to cover
83.  See all 5 Best Picture nominees either in theater or DVD
84.  See a local high school play
85.  See Mason Jenning live again
86.  See a Second City shoe in Chicago
87.  Go to see a movie solo
88.  Hand the camera over and get more pictures of Amelia and I together
89.  Pick up trash around a local park we frequent
90.  Finish a certain "craft project" I started in college (it was meant to be a Christmas present for someone who reads this blog)

Amelia Things
91.  Start a garden with Amelia and grow flowers and/or vegetables
92.  Build Amelia a dollhouse
93.  Take Amelia camping
94.  Introduce Amelia to the fun of a photo booth
95.  Play in the rain with Amelia
96.  Fly a kite with Amelia
97.  Get Amelia a passport
98.  Decorate a gingerbread house with Amelia
99.  Catch lightning bugs with Amelia.

100.  Make a doll for Amelia

101.  Work on the next 101 things to do!

Fair Shares: Week Eight

From 1/7

Herbs en Route Parsley

Blue Heron Orchard Apple Mix (always welcome in our house)

Tessa's Peanut Butter (hmmm....our second container of it--we need to eat my PB)

Ropp Smoked Gouda

River Hills Alliance Eggs

Hinkebein Hills Pork Onion Patties

Lee Farm Sweet Potatoes (...and they continue to multiply!)

Companion Early American Bread (a welcome addition to several meals this week)

Martin Rice

Hilty Sweet Dill Pickles (haven't tried them yet, but they remind me of the pickles my grandma used to make from cucumbers)

Patric Chocolate Bar (believe it or not, we haven't tried this yet)

This was a good week for using some of the meat.  Jason made some delicious, super hamburgers with bacon and bleu cheese this week.  He also added the ground pork to our chili--both were great! 

Magic Mud

I took this recipe from the TODDLER'S BUSY BOOK and it was a huge hit!  The "mud" has a strange texture to it and it changes depending on what you are doing.  Its fun to watch it just slide right through your hands.

Here's the recipe:

1 box cornstarch

water

food coloring

Put the cornstarch in a bowl.  Add enough water to be able to stir the mixture.  Add food coloring if desired.  Seriously couldn't be easier!

The recipe calls for an entire box of cornstarch, but we only had half of a box on hand which was plenty and I think we could have used even less.  Amelia was still interested after 15 minutes.  The book also suggests running cars through it, which we might try next time!

30 is the new 20!

No?  Well, it was the best I could come up with to help make the transition into the 30's a little more tolerable, I suppose.  

Given that my SURPRISE PARTY was two weeks earlier, I felt like we had been celebrating my birthday for a very long time when it finally rolled around.  The night before the big day, Amelia and Jason were "secretly" making my cake.  (Guess who took the pictures).  Jason decided to get all fancy and make a double layered cake with frosting in between.  He bought lots of sugary princess decorations, fancy pink frosting, and even some of those special tips to make neat designs on the cake.  Amelia thought the princess theme was great and enjoyed "helping" put it all together (like putting it in her mouth and on her forehead!).

The lovely stomach flu I acquired stuck around for my actual birthday, so I spent much of it feeling quite nauseous and reassuring people that "No, I am not pregnant!  Yes, I am sure--its just a bug".  Good times.  I was lucky enough for my birthday to fall on Tuesday (the one day of the work that I work) and was keeping my fingers crossed that the ice that came that morning would lead to the cancellation of school.  Unfortunately, every OTHER school in the area was off and I endured an hour long commute instead.

Once at work, though, it was great!  I have forgotten how excited elementary kids get when someone is having a birthday.  They were thrilled and I was even serenaded by two little girls at lunchtime.  The teachers with whom I have worked with over the past several years pitched in to buy my lunch (I opted for soup which was about all I could stomach) and an ice cream cake. Every time I would check my phone, I had a new message or email acknowledging my big day which was really fun!

By the time I arrived at my mom's house to pick Amelia up, I felt pretty lousy.  We had a low key dinner and then returned home for some yummy cake (wow look at all of those candles and we were 10 short!)  during which Amelia threw a pretty impressive tantrum.  After a little present opening, we decided to call it a night.  

And I survived.  Turning 30!  Now I have 10 years to prepare for the next big one and then I'll REALLY be old!

Shake Sharin'

Just days into my New Year I caught a really nasty stomach bug.  I will spare you details, but it had to be worse than any bug I've ever had and any hangover I've ever had combined.  It took 5 days for me to fully recover and feel normal again.  Thankfully, Amelia seemed to have an extremely mild form of it a few days prior to me and Jason never picked it up at all.  

Other than the 3 pound weight loss, the only other good thing that came from having such nastiness was this picture!  I decided one night that the only thing that sounded good was a chocolate shake and so Jason obliged and picked one up for me (which turned out to be a BIG mistake!) and another for him and Amelia to share.  

Interestingly, this was the only way Amelia would let Jason have the shake in his hands--if her hands were on it too!  (Guess I know where she gets that from!).  It took every ounce of strength I had to get up from the couch to snag this picture.  Too bad I didn't have it in me to search for our camera and had to settle for the iPhone.

If the Shoe Fits

Could it be possible that Amelia has already developed a deep love for shoes?  I would think the answer is yes, although I certainly don't know where she got that from given that I have about 7 pairs of shoes currently to my name.  I consistently rotate through about 3 of them.  Most of the time I am in my tennis shoes.

Amelia's love currently is for one specific pair of shoes.  I guess I should be happy that the shoes I bought specifically to wear with her Christmas dress are getting more wear than just the day or two I originally expected them to get.  Ever since she slipped on those patent leather numbers on Christmas Eve, its been almost impossible to keep them off her feet.  To her, they have two names:  her "fancy" shoes or her "loud" shoes.  

In the rare instance that I put (God forbid) a different pair of shoes on her feet before coming downstairs, she will always return to her room at some point and change into her black ones instead.  About fifty percent of the time she will put them on the right feet.  Doesn't matter to her though--right feet or wrong feet, sock or no socks, the girl LOVES these shoes!

Sometimes if I'm really lucky, she will go upstairs fully clothed in a cute, matching outfit and return to me a few minutes later in summer pjs, the loudest pair of socks she owns, and those "fancy" shoes!

Fair Shares: Week Seven

From 12/30/08

Herbs en Route Oregano

Claverach Radish Sprouts (these would be great in salads, but we haven't used them yet)

Ozark Forest Oyster Mushrooms (gulp...wasted ALL of these again.  I need help figuring out what to do with these little creatures)

San Luis Flour Tortillas (smaller in size than what we usually buy, but they've been great to have around, especially to make stuff for Amelia)

Mangia Tomato Vermicelli (really good, made THIS recipe)

Heartland Legacy Cheese (My FAVORITE cheese from Fair Shares)

American Grassfed Beef--Stew Meat

Brown Farm Potatoes

Kuva Coffee (traded for breakfast links, brats, and more tortillas)

I feel like we are getting a bit lax in making sure we use all of our FS goodies.  Its not so much that we are wasting a lot of food, but we are just getting lots of potatoes and meats piled up--luckily both have long shelf lives!

The Most Terrifying Afternoon of my Life

Today started out like most others around here.  We woke up, got dressed, and ate breakfast.  I cleaned in anticipation of a visit from our Parents as Teachers educator.  Amelia "helped" me.  Our PAT educator came and went.  We ate lunch, watched a movie, and then Amelia went down for a nap.  After I put her down, I came into my bedroom to read for a bit.  Then, things got a little scary....

2:40:  I hear my phone ring from upstairs and go downstairs to see who's calling.  I have a missed call from my mom and a voicemail from her as well.  I also have a missed call from Jason from 1:17 pm.  In her message, my mom says her friend (who lives very near where Jason works) called and is wondering what is going on at Jason's company.  My mom is wondering if I'd heard anything from Jason.

2:45:  Unsure of what my mom might be talking about, I consult a local online news source and realize in horror that there has been a shooting at Jason's company (I am intentionally choosing not to identify Jason's company for a variety of reasons).   Details are sketchy at this point, but one person has been taken to the hospital and the shooter is still at large.  There is little information about the time of the occurrence so I can't tell if Jason's call came before or after the incident.

2:50 Frantic calls to Jason's cell phone and work number, both go to voice mail.  

2:52 Text and email Jason.  Change Facebook status to ask him to call me.  

2:53 Call my mom hysterical.  I can't get ahold of Jason and the lack of information via the news media is more than I can handle.  My mom says she will come over.

2:58 Another round of calls to Jason's cell and work phones, still no answer.  Turn TV on for additional coverage and reports say they are still searching for the gunman and all buildings are in lock down.

3:00 Another phone call to my mom because I don't know what else to do. Third round of calls to Jason

3:04 Decide to call Jason's mom to see if she's heard from him.  Up until this point, I didn't want to call her to worry her in case she hadn't heard the news.  She says she talked to him around 1:15 and he said his building was on lock down.  He also told her he read online that someone had been shot in the foot.  Temporary relief ensues.  I now know that Jason called me after the incident, he is on lock down, but am baffled as to why I cannot get a hold of him.

3:05 Mom arrives, we watch the news coverage together.  Constant checking of phone, email, and online coverage.  Gunman still at large.

3:07 News reports that all buildings have been checked but gunman wasn't found.  They are starting to release employees from buildings to leave the campus.  Police are checking trunks as employees depart.

3:16 Jason (finally) texts to say he is okay.  He calls a few minutes later to explain the situation, although I know more than he does thanks to the news media.  Jason, of course, is ridiculously calm and mellow about the whole thing. He had been in a meeting during the half hour I had been trying to get ahold of him.  After coming out of the meeting, his boss asked if he had talked to me yet because Jason's cell phone had gone off several time while Jason was gone. Once on the phone, my first question is "What the hell is going on?" and he says jokingly, "I don't know, someone got shot in the foot or something". 

Which, in the end, is the truth. Someone DID get shot in the foot and ultimately this is about the best outcome possible.  However, it certainly doesn't make things less scary, especially given my habit to immediately expect the worst.  It is very, very easy to get carried away with the "what if" game.  It is a very surreal experience to see your husband's place of employment on the news associated with a story about a workplace shooting.

Details still are a little sketchy.  Seems like the victim is consistently referred to as a contract worker and was expected to be released this evening.  There is no indication that the shooter is an employee of Jason's company.  They still do not have anyone in custody.

I thank God that He listened to my prayers this afternoon and brought Jason (and everyone else at his company) back home safely.