A hair saga

I'll start out with a bang: I HATE my hair. I always have hated it and I still do. It's a burden that I'll have to endure the rest of my life.

My hair is THICK, COURSE, WAVY, CURLY and to put it mildly, has a mind of its own.

When I was girl, I had long hair and I hated it. I was a tomboy and it was always in my way, not to mention HOT.


I begged my mom to cut my hair and finally she relented. YAY. My hair was cut to the top of my shoulders. From there, my hair was a seesaw from the bottom of my ears to the top of my shoulders.



During my high school years, I had no idea HOW to make my hair presentable. I had no idea about hairstyles and picking one that would work with my difficult hair.

The summer of sophomore year in college, my brother suggested I get my hair cut like one of the US gymnasts of the Magnificent Seven - Amanda Borden. This would be a drastic change, but frustrated with my hair, I did it.



While not overly thrilled with short hair, my difficult hair was a little less difficult in some ways (it wasn't always in my face) but at the same time, it was more difficult as it's waviness was more difficult to manage and style. Yet, I kept my hair short for the next seven years.

Enter Eric.

I met my long hair, loving husband and from the moment we started dating, I started letting my hair grow. That was one of the hardest and most frustrating things I have ever done. So many times I wanted to quit and just revert to my short hair, but I kept persevering and one year later, my hair was down to my shoulder blades.

I discovered with my new long hair that it curled nicely with gel. It was impossible to straighten, but that didn't matter since it looked great in its natural state. I was thrilled!





Since then, I have kept my "longer" hair, occassionally getting it cut just above my shoulders, but never back to my short state.

However, since having my son, my hair lost some of it's curliness and is now just plain wavy. It doesn't lay or curl as it did before my pregnancy. But, on the positive side, it is much easier to straighten.

My hair also grew a minimum of a half an inch a month and was impossible to control during the long nine months of carrying my Espresso.

And now, eight months after giving birth to my Espresso, I have finally taken the time to have my hair cut in a specific style. I could feel my hair breathing a sigh of relief as it was pampered.

YAY! I'm so happy to be stylish Mommy for my Espresso instead feelilng like his frumpy ole' Mama!!

The year 2008 as seen by Ethan Matthew (my Espresso)

I started out this year all cozy warm in my Mommy’s belly. I had lots of room to move around and do flips and somersaults. One of my most favorite memories of being inside Mommy was listening to Mommy sing me songs and Daddy saying, “hello in there little boy. I can’t wait to meet you.” But I didn’t stay little. I grew and grew until I was getting too crowded in Mommy’s belly. One day, when Mommy was at the doctor’s office, I heard the doctor say that it was time for me to come out. Mommy’s body was sick with high blood pressure. I was anxious to meet Mommy and Daddy. I was hoping they would like me. And on April 11, 2008 (very early in the morning!), I met Mommy and Daddy and they were so happy to see me. Mommy held me and gave me kisses and so did Daddy. But Mommy was still a little sick because of her blood pressure and some medicine they gave her. Finally she was all better, and I knew they really liked me because they took me home with them - even though my head was floppy and wouldn’t stay up in the car seat.

Mommy and Daddy had a special place for me to sleep and warm clothes for me to wear. Daddy stayed home for 2 whole weeks to be with me before he had to return to something called “work.” When Mommy and Daddy moved here, Daddy worked for the Navy, but he recently changed jobs to work for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). Daddy’s so smart. But Mommy doesn’t work. She stays home with me and we have so much fun together. When the weather was warm, me and Mommy went on walks every day. I loved looking at the mountains, the trees, the lake and sometimes I even saw some turtles go “plop” in the lake as we walked by.

I couldn’t do many things when I was just a little baby, but I’m not a little baby any more. I can sit up, roll over, get up on my hands and knees, jump really hard and long in my jumperoo, hold my own bottle and say dadda and mama. Mommy says that I’m working on something called teeth, but I don’t have any yet.

We’ve had lots of visitors at our house this year - my Pops and Nana; Grandma & Grandpa Spate; Uncle Seth; Uncle Nate & Auntie Tara and ALL my cousins: Jonathan, Emily, Elizabeth and Esther; my adopted Uncle Theron and Mommy and Daddy’s good friend, Miss Tammy McKinley.

In August, me, Mommy and Daddy made a trip to Virginia. It was my first time on an airplane. I did just what my Mommy and Daddy wanted me to do - look around, drink from my bottle and sleep. In Fredericksburg, we visited Kenmore and Ferry Farm and I met a lot of nice people - Mr. Rob & Mrs. Jackie Hix and their two boys: Noah & Daniel; Mr. Nathan & Mrs. Deidre Morrow and their children: Jacob, Rebekah & Isaac; Mr. Mike & Mrs. Jennifer Sayre; Mr. & Mrs. Keller; Mr. Brad & Mrs. Jennifer Church and their nice children: Megan, Lilly, Luke & Joel. Luke and Joel made me laugh! We also took a trip to Virginia Beach and I met my Grammy & Poppy T. I think there are lots of nice people in Virginia and I can’t wait to see them all again. I think Mommy and Daddy really miss them, and that makes me a little sad.

When we got back from our trip to Virginia, Mommy had to go see an ear doctor (ENT). She said she was having a hard time hearing & understanding Daddy . The ENT said Mommy’s bones in her middle ear had gotten really, really hard and she had something called Otosclerosis. The ENT said Mommy had only two ways to make her ears better: hearing aides or surgery. Daddy, because he is something called an Engineer, wanted to talk to more doctors. So Mommy had to wait to make a decision, even though her ears make her very frustrated. Mommy is a brave Mommy and she is going to have surgery so she can hear better. But it is going to take 6 months or more because she has to wait that long between each ear. She needs to hurry up because I’m going to be talking her ears off in hers and Daddy’s language very soon! Mommy will have her first surgery after Christmas in January.

I keep hearing about this thing called Christmas - and it seems to be a big deal! There are all of these things wrapped in this crinkly, colorful paper under this tree Mommy and Daddy brought inside and covered in lights and sparkly ornaments. But I think it really has something to do with another baby born a long time ago - somebody called Jesus. Mommy and Daddy say Christmas is Jesus’ birthday. I hope He has a good birthday. Happy Birthday Jesus and a Merry Christmas to everyone.



Eric, Priscilla & Ethan
Isaiah 9:6

Getting back into the swing of things

It's amazing how life can just sneak up on you and before you know it, a month or two has passed. That's what seems to have happen to me these past couple months. I have no idea where the time went, but it passed, and passed quickly.

We've been so busy here, from Dr. apts, to travelling to visit friends and family, to company for Thanksgiving and hosting the SS Christmas party. It's been a whirlwind! And now with Christmas coming, it's harder to find time to sit down and blog. One thing I've learned about blogging, if you miss a few days, it's easy to just let a few more slip by and before you know it, you've got so much catching up to do in your blog world. Since all my readers mostly know what's going on in my life, I don't have to catch you up on too much.

The biggest thing to catch people up on is that I have scheduled my surgery for my ears! YAY! I'm so excited! Jan 9 is the glorious day. I'll have my right ear operated on first as that is the worst of the two. I can't tell you how excited I am to finally be able to hear, at least in one ear. It's been, at times, a living nightmare for me and probably for my hubby too. I have missed so much I sometimes feel as though I'm just off in my own little world somewhere. So yes...I'm excited to get back in the world with everyone else. 24 days and counting! Whoop! Whoop!!

I hope to be more consistent with the blog. Maybe I should set up a reminder on my 'puter! Haha....Any way...I'm back!!

ear update

Here is the official "ear" update. Sorry it's taken me a few days to get it out. With Thanksgiving and Christmas decorating it's been a little busy in the Cole household.

We met with two ear surgeon's in Nashville, one on Tuesday and the other on Wednesday. Both confirmed the diagnosis of Otosclerosis.

The one doctor on Tuesday offered some more information that we had not known. A little side note on him, when he was doing his residency at John Hopkins in the 70's, he was Werner von Braun's (the former German scientist during WWII who came to the US and helped us get into space) attending physician when von Braun died. We learned from him that what we thought was the cause of my hearing condition (caused by pregnancy hormones) is just a theory. The other possible theory is a possible link to measles. Since I've never had measles and I have been pregnant, the pregnancy theory fits for us, but as I stated, that is still just a theory. A family history is considered a link, but since no one in my family has been diagnosed with Otosclerosis or wears hearing aides (except due to old age) it's still a mystery as to why I have Otosclerosis. Another strange thing about my case is that this usually developed in women in their mid-twenties. I just turned 30 this year so that is a mystery as well. We also learned from him that there is a drug I can take that would kill the active part of Otosclerosis. It would not improve my hearing, but it would keep it from getting worse. The one thing that is imperative about this drug is before I could take it is I would need to be done having children. Something about the drug stays in your body and can cause birth defects. So this drug is not really an option for us since we'ver not really discussed any future children. I had also thought that if I did get pregnant again, my hearing would continue to deteriorate as it did when I was pregnant with Ethan. This doctor said that the bones in my right ear (the worst of the two) are about as hard as they can get, so I would not have any additional hearing loss. My left ear still could see some hearing loss as it is not as bad as my right ear, but it's not far behind my right ear. I guess it's good news that my hearing won't get substantially worse, but it's bad enough right now that I can't make out (clearly) people speaking if they do not speak up or are more than 5 feet away. Which then leaves us two options, as before, hearing aides or surgery. Both doctors have a success rate of 94% which is higher than the national average of 90% and the success rate of the doctor in Huntsville.

Our appointment on Wednesday was a major frustration. We were told to arrive early because I would having another hearing test. After the long wait and the hearing test, it was over 2 hours before I saw the ear surgeon. Ethan was trooper during Tuesday's appointment and most the Wednesday's appointment, but after being awake 1.5 hours after his usual morning nap, he was getting testy. This surgeon did not provide us with any additional information as did the doctor on Tuesday. He did have a few tips of his fingers missing which made us wonder HOW he does he make precise cuts in a surgery.

We are now in the pricing stage. Hopefully, by today or tomorrow, I will have the prices for the one doctor we met with on Tuesday in Nashville and the one here in Huntsville and also all facility costs of both places. After that, we'll schedule. Both the Nasvhille doctor and the Hunstville doctor said it would be about 3-4 weeks before a surgery. That's good to know that I won't have to wait too long. We had wanted to get one done before Ethan was mobile. While he's not crawling yet, he will be soon. For the first few days and in the following weeks of the surgery, I will really need to avoid and limit any lifting. We're leaning towards Ethan & I staying with Eric's parents so I can have someone "lift" Ethan for me. He's getting to be a heavy little boy!!

Needless to say, I'm ready to hear again!!!

Thanks to every one for praying!