Yes, we know what causes it

Matthew M. Brennan, Rest in Peace

2011-10-17T06:36:00.000-07:00

In July, Christi and I attended the funeral of a very close family friend, Matthew Brennan. Matt was the son of Michael and Maria Brennan, who have been in our lives for nearly 20 years. Matt and his brother Scott used to come over to the house and play with Legos with our kids. The family moved to Oregon when the boys were young, but they still came to visit and we enjoyed watching the kids together. In later years, when Mike and Maria came to visit, the older boys didn't always come as older kids tend to do, they don't necessarily want to hang out with the folks. I remember what was probably the last time I saw Matt, watching him laugh and joke with my boys at the table in the Denny's where we all met. He was a smiling, freckle-faced kid, probably 14 or 15 at the time, and he looked like he had not a worry in the world.

But then he grew up, became a soldier and went to war.

When he came home, he was no longer the Matt that everyone knew. He had faced some horrible situations while in Iraq and they had left him forever scarred. If given permission by his family, I will share more of his story at another time. It only needs to be said here that he suffered from PTSD

On July 16th, 2011, we lost Matt to PTSD. While he did not die in Iraq, he was a victim of the war as surely as if he had stepped on a land mine. Although his was not a combat death, we cannot afford to forget those who lose the battle with PTSD. For more information on Matthew, please go here, here or here.

Please visit Christi's facebook page for more links about Matthew.

God Bless you Matthew Brennan. You are a hero.

You are OUR hero.

Set your DVRs! Or not.

2011-07-13T06:47:00.000-07:00

We told you that we'd let you know and now we are. The TLC version of Inside the human body is set to air tonight at 7 pm pacific time. We are looking forward to seeing what changes TLC made in their version. They filmed quite a bit more after the BBC was finished, so it could be very different from what we saw on the dvd BBC sent us. Christi also wanted me to mention that when we filmed this, she was at her heaviest and has since lost a little over 60 pounds (she really does look awesome!). I'm even 30 pounds lighter than I was then too. Can't do anything about my looks though. Jessica is coming over and we're all gonna watch it together. We'll have some snacks and enjoy our 5 minutes on the screen. Kinda silly, but it's one of those things we do.

We are the silly Casons, after all.

House update

2011-07-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update and some info on the short sale house that we are buying. Here is a link to the listing for those of you that are interested. Our amazing realtor Leanna Bradshaw has been great throughout the whole process. She's been in this hunt with us now for almost 2 years and has stuck through 5 short sales, shown us countless houses, in the morning, noon and night. She has pestered sellers with all manner of questions for us and always has stood by us. She has learned to know exactly what we're looking for and doesn't show us houses we wouldn't want. She is now working out of Orange County, CA. If you're in need of a realtor, give her a call.

Sadness and recovery

2011-07-12T11:44:00.000-07:00

Recently, Christi and I experienced a very sad loss. At approximately 8 weeks gestational age, it was confirmed what would have been our 17th child, had ceased to grow, and the placental sac appeared empty. We had held out some hope, because the initial blood tests showed Christi's HCG to be sufficient, but her progesterone was low, and to further muddy the waters, the ultrasound she had done was an external. At this early stage, an external can be virtually blind. Her Dr. prescribed progesterone supplements and had her take things easy, which she tried very hard to do, but if you know her, you know that easy for her is what most of us call busy. Notwithstanding, her spotting eventually began to be bright red and we went to the ER where the bloodwork showed a decrease in the HCG and a vaginal U/S also showed an empty sac. It was a very sad time for us, and it hit me much harder than I would have thought. Christi says she had a feeling that something might not have been right and the low progesterone may have helped ease her emotions just a bit. Still it was very hard. Some don't realize that for folks like us, even a relatively early loss like this is still the loss of a child.
Her doctor offered a D & C procedure to ease the process and due to a risk of hemmorage, but she really preferred to allow for a natural passing of the tissue. In the next 24 hours however, she began to have very severe cramps and pass large amounts of bright red blood and tissue. Remembering the doctors concern about bleeding, we chose to go ahead with the procedure.
Everything went very well, and one small plus was that he didn't have to dilate her as she was already in the process of miscarriage. She is healing very well physically and although she has put up a very brave face, she has felt the loss deeply. I saw it in her eyes when I took the kids to run errands, which I do from time to time to give her a quiet house, and she ran after me and made me leave Nathaniel to be with her. She immediately took him to the couch and cuddled him close. Yes, she grieves the loss of the baby that could have been, but she is healing and looking forward to trying again. Dr. Byrne has been really great and says that all should be well whenever her cycles kick back in.

I for one, can't wait to start practicing...;)

Woohooooo #17 is on the way!!!!

2011-06-10T19:56:00.000-07:00

Wooohoooooooooooooo I am about 6 weeks along with #17, yeah!!!! Dave will be back to update with quite a bit more. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah wooohooooooooooo #17, our 17th Blessing is on the way!
Christi mommy to 16 and God willing 17 beautiful awesome kiddos soon.

In case you thought we were dead.

2011-05-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

Well, we're not. We've been busy with the house hunt, life in general and when we weren't doing that, we were procrastinating. Notice I said "PRO" crastinating. Just means I'm really, really good at it. Just a little update: On the house front, we've made several offers on houses since our last house post. The one we were waiting for, with the urine stained carpet, went on so long that we started looking again. Surprisingly we found a whole bunch of houses that were in better shape and for the same or only a bit more money. We actually went into escrow on one that was pretty good, but I decided it didn't have quite enough space for what we'd be paying monthly. After a whole lot of searching, we finally found a short sale that was in a better situation than the stinky one. This home is immaculate and it's clear that these people took great care of this house. Since this house is not yet in arrears, the negotiations are going much smoother than a typical short sale. It is a 5 bed, 2 3/4 bath with 3 car garage, pretty good size backyard and a huge long driveway. There is also nobody behind us and no development likely for awhile. It is also on the outside of a bend in the road, almost like a cul-de-sac, and the wedge shape of the property means that our neighbors to each side are a bit further distance than most, and are at an angle so that our windows are not looking directly across at theirs. Long story short, we truly think this is THE ONE, so we've pulled all other offers and have stopped looking. Our agent says things are going smoothly.
In other news, the show we filmed for the BBC was supposed to have aired on the 5th and we are awaiting our DVD copies from our producer. She said the BBC would send them as soon as the show aired in the UK, so we're anxious to see it. It's called Inside Human Bodies just in case you happen to be somewhere you can watch BBC one.
That's it for now. Christi and I will try and get back to this thing, but only time will tell. My new job doesn't have loads of down time like my old one did, so no blogging from work.

Not much anyway.

Tanya Marie Petro, Rest In Peace

2011-01-31T04:17:00.000-08:00

Our first exposure to this tragedy was when our daughter Bailey came home and told us that her friend Sam's aunt had disappeared. We were, of course, very sad for Sam, and we offered up our prayers for her aunt's safe return. We later heard the horrible news that she had been brutally murdered by her supposed boyfriend and we were again shocked and saddened. The story only really hit home for us when a week or so later, Christi stopped by Sam's house to pick up Harper and was introduced to Laura, Sam's grandmother. It was then that she realized that we had known her for some time, as both she and her daughter Tanya had worked at our local Circle K stores. It was then that we really put the face to the name and Tanya's loss became a little more personal for us. We decided to attend her memorial service and we later worked at a car wash to raise funds for her children who are 7 and 8 and have had their lives turned upside-down. Tanya was a single mom who worked hard to make a good life for her kids and herself and now the children could use your help. To that end, a fund has been set up by the Riverside Sheriff's office and Circle K to help her kids and if you are so inclined, donations can be made to the Tanya Petro children memorial fund at any Wells Fargo bank. More information about that can be found here. Her kids can also use any prayers you can send their way too.

On behalf of the family, we thank you.

Bumps in the road

2010-12-20T04:41:00.000-08:00

We posted before about the house on which we made an offer, waiting for the approval of the short sale by the bank. It appears now that we have crossed the final hurdle of approval and now are merely waiting for the bank to open escrow. When we last posted about the house, we were going to see it with Christi's dad and some of the older kids. The house we saw that day, was not the same as the one we had seen and placed our offer. Since that time, the owners had moved and left their mother in charge of the house. She apparently had 3 little shaky dogs that had been having some accidents on the carpet. Sadly, at least 2 of the rooms in the house now had distinct dog urine odors. We left that day after having our agent contact the seller's agent and extracting a commitment to double clean the carpets upon completion of their move. Fast forward to last week and the owners had gone, and the carpet had been double cleaned. Sadly, the urine smell remains. It appears as though it has completely soaked through the carpet and padding and into the wood of the upstairs floor. The downstairs floor is concrete, but the carpet and padding will have to go. It is my hope that only the two main rooms of concern will need the carpet ripped out, but that remains to be seen. Christi was extremely disappointed because she had wanted to have a home that she could be proud to invite folks into and now it appears as though we may have bare floors for awhile because we won't be able to immediately afford to replace that much carpet. And when we do, it will be the good stuff with extra thick padding. This is going to be our home for a long time (God willing) and we want it to be right. We feel certain that we lost that previous house because it wasn't the right one for us. This one has all we wanted and more. We won't be letting our hard work go for nothing over the removal of some carpet, that's for sure. Christi, in particular has worked her little tushy off calling, calculating, and negotiating to make this work. I did my part, working every scrap of overtime I could get, but it was really her that made it all possible. I thank God for my wonderful wife and kids and now for this opportunity to put my family in a home they deserve. I'll be praying for a quick opening of escrow so we can get started on this new path before us.

The Plague is over!!

2010-12-19T14:11:00.000-08:00

Can I just tell you how much we hate viral gastroenteritis? You know, the one that's commonly known as the stomach flu? We just went through a long bout of it here at the Cason Hacienda and damned if it didn't just about wear us out. Trevor first showed up with the symptoms in October, the usual fever and diarrhea that lasted 5 days no matter what you took, 5 days for everyone of us, and that part of it worked it's way through the whole family over the next FIVE weeks with several of the kids having pretty high fevers for more than a day. Rebekah even had fever-induced seizure Christi knew what was going on as she had experienced this with Jessica when she was almost 2 years old but is still scared the heck out of both of us.Also during this same time period, as if having the sickies for 5 days for each person with only one bathroom was not enough we were also now one by one experiencing super high fevers with sore throats and aches and pains and once that was over,( keep in mind it is now the 1st week of December) we felt lucky that we'd gotten away without the vomiting, but of course a new 3rd bug had more in store for us.Christi had said on Thursday, wow, I think we are finally sick free, never ever tempt fate, as the next day Chad started throwing up, we had our first puker. Once that started, we all got another taste of the sickies as we each, in turn, got to experience that same thrill. Yeah, that was a real party for Christi. She and I both spent a bit of time with our friends Clorox and Lysol, cleaning up behind one sick kid after another.In a an 18 hour period 13 of us were throwing up. Christi, of course, got the worst of it, because I was at work during the night and isn't that always when kids do their best barfing? She was the one, up in the middle of the night changing their clothes and flipping laundry back and forth trying to stay ahead of the vomit tsunami and while doing this she was throwing up herself.Christi told me when I got home that at one 10 minute interval there were 5 of them throwing up at the same time, 2 in the kitchen and 3 in the bathroom, Bailey had to bypass the bathroom as it was busy only to meet up with Austin at the kitchen sink. She laughs about it now as she said it was like something that might happen in a movie. My one visit from the bug happened at work and I just lost the bananas I had eaten earlier and spent the rest of my shift with some relatively mild nausea. And naturally, just when we thought we had it beat, it passed around a second time and some of the kids got another wave of sickness.
We have now been clear for about 5 days( this is the longest we have been sick free since late October) and things are looking good as far as illnesses are concerned. The laundry is now clean and everyone is eating normally, just in time for the Christmas. All the kids got flu shots too and we have never experienced 3 different illnesses back to back and hope not to ever again either, lol.
We hope that all of you have a flu-free Christmas and a healthy new year.

Christi wants to send hugs and loves to her beautiful cousin Linda and she is waving hi, give Uncle Ray and Aunt Betsy a hug from Christi.

Finished up filming for TLC and The BBC.

2010-11-16T04:14:00.000-08:00

Remember in August when I posted this? Apparently since the BBC documentary will also air on TLC, they wanted a bit more footage for the U.S. version, so they sent a second crew out to film us. The crew included our Director/producer Gwen Isaac, of Midnight Swim productions, Cinematographer Gavin Brennan, and our sound technician, whose first name was John, unfortunately I didn't get his last name. As we got acquainted with our crew, Christi was beside herself to discover that Gavin had worked on the Deadliest catch on the Time Bandit boat and John had worked on the crew of the Ghost Hunters series on SyFy. These are a couple of the family's favorite shows and everybody had lots of questions for the guys. While the last post was titled "The British are coming!", in this case our crew were from New Zealand; (Gwen), Australia; (Gavin) and America; John. Gwen was Fabulous and has been all over the world, Christi did not enough time to question her too much.
It was a pretty good day, and the kids had a lot of fun playing soccer in the front yard for the camera. It was funny as Gwen kept telling the kids to kick the football and the kids would look at her and she'd have to say, "soccer ball". Afterwards, Christi and I did a pretty candid interview regarding our ability to have so many kids and our experiences with birth and such.
All in all it was a pretty good day and I hope the footage they got makes for a great documentary when the final cut is done.

Congratulations Chris and Wendy Jeub!!

2010-11-02T00:13:00.000-07:00

Why am I congratulating them? Why on the impending birth of their #16, of course! Christi has been in touch with the Jeubs for several years now, ever since we were first contacted about doing the TLC Kids by the Dozen show. Chris and Wendy did one of the first episodes and Christi emailed them about their experiences with filming the show and they were so gracious to answer all of her questions and their reassurances that the producers would be fair and decent went a long way toward convincing us to do it. Indeed it was a great experience. Therefore we not only want to congratulate them, but also thank them.

Thank you Chris and Wendy!!

That being said, let me also direct you to this post on their website on which you can win a free book! While you're there, check out the rest of their site, they've got some interesting resources for homeschooling and running family businesses, plus some good old family wisdom too.

G'waannn, check 'em out...you know you wanna!

Waiting for our castle

2010-10-21T04:09:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago, we made the announcement that our backup offer on a house had been moved up to the primary offer and we were in the waiting game for bank approval. Well, some paperwork has been shuffled and the previous owners are moving out and we are a bit closer to actually getting this thing done. We are going to see it with Christi's dad today so he can have a look at it (postponed from a couple weeks ago) plus the older kids. A few of you have asked, so I'll provide this link to the listing, for your viewing pleasure. As before, I'll ask any of you that pray to keep us in your prayers to get this house. I think it is the one we were meant for.

New Choppers!!

2010-10-21T03:18:00.000-07:00

With all the things that need doing around our house, some things just stand out when they get accomplished and deserve special notice. What's that you say? Did I finally get the garage cleaned out? No. Did Christi finally work a vacation trip into an already tight budget? No....

What got fixed yesterday can't be claimed by either Christi or me, but makes us so happy, it deserves a post all it's own.

Chad got his teeth fixed!!

Some of you may remember that awhile back, Chad was attacked by some lowlife who hit him in the face with a hammer. While he was otherwise uninjured, his front 3 teeth were shoved back up into his gums and damaged. They eventually came back down, but were expected to die in place and maybe fall out. Well, after much wrangling with the health insurance and the dentist's office, he has finally gotten his teeth capped and re-secured in place. (I don't know the details, just now they look great and don't wiggle) He goes back in tomorrow to get a cleaning to start things off fresh. Chad can once again flash his winning smile without immediately putting his hand up to hide his messed up teeth. He's a good looking boy, but the teeth just put the final touch on his handsome mug.

(Not Chad's actual teeth)

From the back of the line, to the front, and no cuts, no butts, no coconuts.

2010-09-21T04:29:00.000-07:00

At a time like this, the reptilian part of my brain tells me to refrain from talking about things like this, in order to avoid the wrath of the Real Estate Gods. But I seldom listen to my own superstitious thoughts and so I'll tell you that Christi and I are now the primary offer on what is probably the best house we've seen yet. As noted here, we lost out on a short sale on which we had been waiting almost 6 months for a final answer. It was rather heartbreaking as we weren't even informed that our offer had been dropped and so we were on the hook for probably 2 months unnecessarily. As I said in that post, we had since put in offers, 2 of which we were in backup offer status. Well, it happened. The primary offer on a 5 bedroom 3 bath house, with 3000 plus square feet fell through and our offer was submitted to the bank. Unfortunately, the previous buyer lost his job, and our sympathies are with him for that, but I think that this is our time. As Christi kept saying after we became the backups "the backup offer on the previous house got it" so she and I kept some very high hopes. It looks like things just might work out this time. This house is the best we've seen yet as it keeps us in the schools we wanted, has nearly double the footage of where we are now, 5 bedrooms and a 3 car garage. The backyard is completely walled in with concrete block walls and the landscaping shields the backyard from nosy neighbors. Most importantly, it has that one feature that Christi has been dying for for so long, a fireplace. In fact it has 2, the most awesome one being in the master bedroom right in front of the garden tub (read: Luuuv tub). The kitchen is large with great cabinets and stainless stove and dishwasher (another important feature). We are taking her dad to see it on Thursday, to get his opinion, but I'm sure he'll be just as pleased with it as we are. My hopes are hanging on this one, but we feel really good about this house. If you pray at all, please pray that things work out for us with this house.

It will feel so good to finally have a place of our own.

Introducing...Nathaniel Frost Cason

2010-09-20T01:48:00.000-07:00

As many of you will know from Christi's Facebook, our Nathaniel was born on September 1st. He weighed in at 7lbs, 13oz at birth and he is, of course, absolutely beautiful. He was a total surprise as Christi had come to think it was a girl and so had I. I was completely shocked when those boy parts came flopping out. Previously, we had mentioned that we had an ultrasound picture with the sex info written on it, stashed in an envelope that I had hidden from Christi. Well, we successfully avoided the temptation, but were convinced it was a girl due to Christi's feelings, cravings and the fast heartbeat we always heard on the doppler in the Dr.s office.
Enter Nathaniel.

The first thing the nurse pointed out was the size of his hands. He really does have big hands and feet for a newborn. You know what big hands and feet mean don't you? Wink, wink, nudge , nudge. It means shoes and gloves will be hard to find when he gets older...why? What did you think I meant?

So the name...we had been thinking about Xander, but Christi really didn't like it much. She was thinking Zane, but I didn't really like that one, so we were tossing out some names and Christi said Nathan. I've knew a Nathan and didn't like him much, so I threw out Nathaniel, which we thought sounded better anyway. We hemmed and hawed and mulled over a few others, then when it came down to it, we asked the kids to vote, for Xander or Nathaniel. We went with their choice. I think Christi is just beginning to warm up to it. The middle name Frost comes from Christi's mom's family and was originally after Robert Frost.
Just a week after Nathaniel was born, his first checkup with the Pediatrician revealed that his bilirubin was high and the Dr. sent us back to the hospital for a dose of light therapy. Christi stayed at the hospital with him and he was home the next evening looking a much more normal shade of caucasian instead of jaundice flavored yellow. Most of the kids have had a bit of jaundice after birth, but he is the first one called back in for the light treatment, although Morgan did get the lights while he was in the NICU at Loma Linda.
Nathaniel is now home enjoying Mommy and his brothers and sisters, all of whom want to pick him up and carry him around all the time. We're sure happy to have him home and will enjoy watching him turn into the little person he's going to be.

Welcome Home Nathaniel!!

What baby wants...baby gets!

2010-09-01T02:32:00.000-07:00

Apparently the baby is not content with waiting for any of us adults and our schedules, he or she had it in mind to send us to the hospital in the wee hours of the morn. Christi is bathing and getting all smelly good for her birth experience and I'm going to be sorting out kids clothes for tomorrow's school, hopefully without screwing it up too badly. If I'm able to come back Christi will talk me through it by phone anyway. With that, we're off to the hospital to meet this little one.

Our blog title says we know what causes it...this is the IT that we're talking about!

More later.

The British are coming!!

2010-08-31T11:32:00.000-07:00

Actually, they were here on Sunday, but that wouldn't be a very catchy title, would it? The film crew showed up around 11 am and although Christi and I were a bit nervous, we were as ready as we would ever be as we stepped into the living room to meet them. Our fears were quickly allayed as the director and producer turned out to be very nice and very laid back people. Nat, the director was charming and friendly and the kids took to him immediately. Emma, our producer, had talked extensively both on the phone and via Facebook to both Christi and I, so she was more familiar, but it was great to actually meet her face to face. Our cameraman, Julius was quite a lot of fun and probably the kids favorite. With them also were Kris and Alan, both locals (from L.A. and Murrieta, respectively) a couple of nice guys also. The day went very well and the kids performed amazingly well. There was no pressure and Nat guided us through our various shots with ease. The day flew by and we were sad to see them go, but anxious for them to get the film back to London and finish the documentary, the quicker to see how it turns out. I was able to get the following pictures using the amazing camera that they provided me for filming the birth. I'm no photographer, but with a 21 megapixel Canon, I could hardly go wrong.This one was taken by Julius, it's all 17.9 of us on the lawn under our miyamosa tree. They had us wearing those orange nametags for the first couple shots.
Rebekah gets her closeup as Julius operates the camera, Nat the director is at far right and production assistant Kris is behind Nat. Trevor is at the table waiting for permission to dig into the pizza with Emma standing up in the middle of it all. Harper is at the left, talking with the sound guy, Alan.
It was great time and we had a lot of fun.

Just a little update

2010-08-24T01:51:00.000-07:00

Christi has been posting on her facebook about various events that have occurred in our lives recently, so I'm going to try and update on these things and fill in some details about what has been going on with us lately.

Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea: The Cason News Update!

For those of you wishing Dalton well, he has an appointment on the 20th to have some upper GI and lower GI scans and an ultrasound to have a thorough look at his innards and see what this mass is all about. The Doc at Loma Linda said that whatever it was, it would most likely involve some sort of surgical intervention, we just need to find out more and see what is what. We hope that those of you that pray will do so for a simple diagnosis and easy treatment. He says it's not hurting much anymore, but we want to get this thing out and finished so he can get busy with college and work and whatnot.

On the home buying front: Some of you know that we were in a contract for a house that was a short sale and were waiting to hear if we had bank approval on the first mortgage (we were told that the second mortgage holder had approved us). Apparently, without contacting us, the listing agent heard from the bank that they wanted an offer of at least $6500 more than we had offered and they chose to go with a backup offer without contacting us and giving us the chance to counter. We had been waiting just shy of 6 (six) months thinking we had it in the bag, when I just happened to drive by the house and saw that the swimming pool was full of clean water (it had been near empty with some stagnant rain water at the bottom when we saw it). Curious, and knowing that our agent had been unable to reach the listing agent for some time, I thought I would just call the main office and inquire about it as though I were just looking. I called and asked and was told that the house was set to close escrow the very next day, but they had many more lovely houses in the area to show me....

W.T...um...Heck????

I was obviously quite upset by this, and made my displeasure known to the agent who had answered the phone. She didn't have any answers and was, honestly, pretty dismissive of my outrage. After several messages left for the listing agents and having our agent make some inquiries, we figure that one of the listing agents probably screwed his fellow listing agent by dumping us and taking the bigger offer without notice and may have taken the lion's share of the profits too. While I know we could probably have raised a legal stink about this, it would have cost us money we can't afford to lose and so we took it as a sign from God that the house was not the right one for us. We have since made a couple offers, on which we stand as backups and are continuing to look.

We will find a house.

We have also been contacted by a young lady from the BBC and it appears they would like to interview us for a documentary on the human body. We will be featured in an episode on reproduction, (naturally!) and we're told that it will air on TLC in the U.S. in 2011. They originally intended to film the birth of #16 but the hospital balked for safety reasons (read: liability) and so it will just be the interview. That's going to happen on the 29th, we'll let you know how that turns out.

Speaking of #16, Christi is scheduled to be induced on the 1st, because the Doc likes to keep as much control due to the high risk associated with numerous pregnancy moms. Of course, that is assuming that the baby will let us get that far in the first place. Christi has been having some interesting contractions lately and the thought is creeping in that we may be in for an early arrival. Kids never pay attention to schedules, do they? This one we'll definitely keep you up to date on. Certainly on facebook, maybe on twitter if the laptop we bought arrives in time. That's another small piece of news, we bought our first computer in 8 years and we're excited about not having to wait 20 minutes for the computer to boot and then logon and access the web. We have been using Chad's laptop, but he needs it for school now, so it's gone most of the time. Got a really sweet deal on ShopNBC.com too.

Along with the contractions, Christi has been having a really hard time with migraines. She has had to deal with them on several pregnancies, but this one has been the worst. Her Doc has given her some stuff for pain, but it is of limited help and nothing works completely for her. It will ease off and get better, but she has headaches that last for days. At the moment, she is headache free, and I hope she can stay that way for awhile. She's been to the hospital several times for these migraines and while they eventually get rid of it, they pump her full of meds and she feels hungover all the next day. Pray for her to have some relief until the birth.

Also, as you may have seen on my facebook, I was in Washington D.C. recently for some work training at our company HQ. I got to walk around and see some great sights, but it really made me miss Christi and the kids not having them to share it. I got a few good pictures, but the camera gave me some trouble when I tried to photograph the White House and some other neat sights. I am already hatching a plan to get the family there for a vacation as soon as I can swing it. I'd like to make a loop through Philadelphia, D.C. and some Virginia Civil War sights. Maybe in the Spring so it's not so hot and humid as it is now. I'll try and get a few of the D.C. pics and a post on my blog when I can.

That's about it for the update, but with us, there will always be something coming up.

Stay tuned.

A recommendation, if you're so inclined.

2010-08-10T03:13:00.000-07:00

We recently had the pleasure of purchasing a certified used car to replace my previously um... disabled car. We had been waiting until the house approval came through, but we had been using Dalton's car since then and we could no longer continue to put miles on it. So we began the search for a car, with a pretty good idea that we would be getting another Chevy. I wasn't ruling out a Toyota or maybe a Nissan, but preferred to go with an American car if I could.

I quickly found a Chevy Cobalt 4 door that was priced pretty reasonably, certified used and had pretty much everything I needed. I test drove it and then sat down to see about making the purchase. My credit is not the greatest, so I expected that the interest rate I got would be a bit high. The initial rate they came back with was 16.99%. I walked on that rate and went home.

The next day, I had decided to just go with it, thinking that I would not get a better rate and I called the dealership. The salesman told me he'd talk to his finance people and see if he could get a little better rate. Making a long story short, they came back with an even higher rate, so I bailed on that car and kept looking. Fast forward to the car I found at Rydell Chevrolet in Northridge California. I had gotten my own bank, Wells Fargo to agree to a pre-approval at a rate of 11.99% which was much more acceptable. I went into Rydell expecting that rate.

The car was an awesome price, having only 15,000 miles on it, and priced below it's blue book. I was saving myself all the depreciation, and getting the car I wanted. Due to the late hour on that Saturday afternoon, unfortunately, we missed getting the approval of the underwriters for the bank and would have to wait until Monday morning. We were prepared to put a $500 dollar deposit and come back then. Enter the finance manager. I hate to say it, but I don't recall his name and don't have the business card nearby. As he was writing up the contract, he asked us what our credit score was. I told him what they had said it was at the other dealership and he seemed amazed at the high rate I was getting. He asked if he could make a call on our behalf and we said ok, feeling skeptical, but let him try anyway. He got on the phone with one of his bankers, with whom he has a pretty good relationship, and chatted us up, talking about our kids and telling her about our blog and stuff. They were obviously familiar as we heard her laughter over the phone as he chatted and joked with her. Withing a few minutes, he looked at us and said, "approved...at 8.5%". I nearly fell out of my chair. This car dealership finance guy, had gotten us a rate that was 8 or 9 points below the other dealership and still 3 and a half points below what I had thought was a great rate (considering my credit) from my bank. Plus I was getting a barely used car at rock bottom pricing with the features I wanted. This has turned out to be the best car deal that Christi and I have ever gotten. The whole experience this time around was awesome and for that reason I HIGHLY recommend Rydell Chevrolet on Devonshire street in wonderful Northridge, California. If you are anywhere near Los Angeles and looking for a car to buy, Google them and give them a shot, I think you'll like them.

A real anniversary

2010-08-03T04:05:00.000-07:00

It's about 4 am local time, and 19 years ago today, Christi and I were just about to tie the knot. We had no idea what we were doing, and of course had no clue where that night's actions would lead us. We've had our ups and downs over the years, but it's been the greatest time of my life. I cherish my wonderful wife and our 16 children. Of the many directions my life could have taken, I wouldn't have it any other way.

I LOVE YOU CHRISTI RAE CASON

With that, I present to you all...

The story of us, part 4

The last time I had gone to Vegas had been with my roommate and another good buddy. That trip, by comparison, would prove to have been very uneventful. As Christi and I travelled along, we didn’t speak about what we were going to do. I think we sort of discussed the fact that neither of us was dressed for anything fancy and we pondered where we might go for our wedding, but for the most part, we didn’t really talk about what we were getting into. The road to Vegas was a long one, especially as it was getting pretty late into the night. Much of the trip is a blur, blotted out by the overpowering memory of the more important events of that weekend, but one memory that will never go away is of the World’s Tallest Thermometer. More precisely, I remember the parking lot of the Bun Boy restaurant which is located right next to the World’s Tallest Thermometer. We didn’t eat there, and we didn’t really stop to see the World’s Tallest Thermometer. None the less, it was the most memorable part of the long drive through the California desert. We arrived in Las Vegas sometime in the 3 o’clock hour and drove around looking for a motel room. We secured a room at the Gateway motel and spent an hour or so freshening up and then we ventured back out to see about this marriage thing. The first step in the process was to obtain our marriage license. We went into the Las Vegas marriage commission building which, true to Vegas form, is open 24 hours. We filled out the required paperwork, paid our fee, and then, since we hadn’t made our minds up about where to get married, we chose to be officiated by this guy:

Ok, so it wasn't really Scatman Crothers who married us, because he'd been dead for something like 5 years by then, but the guy, Owen, looked a hell of a lot like him. Owen was the Deputy Marriage Commissioner of Clark County, Nevada. He was really nice and we had a very simple, quiet ceremony. We went back to our motel room in a daze...already Christi was wondering what she had just done as she began to say, "I can't believe I'm married", again and again throughout the day in kind of a stunned whisper. She continued to say that, from time to time for the first 4 years or so that we were married.

Sometime later that day, we found ourselves at a pawn shop somewhere in town and we bought a couple of plain, cheap gold rings and those were our wedding bands for a couple years until we could afford something a little better. We then began to ponder what we might do in the way of a honeymoon. After a bit of thinking, we came up with the brilliant plan of going out to Hoover Dam. We headed out that direction, but our enthusiasm for seeing the dam began to wane and several Indian turquoise jewelry stores later, Christi began to feel the need to get back to Chad and Jessica who were staying with her folks for the weekend. So we turned around and headed back West, our heads reeling with thoughts of the future.

We still had to face Christi's folks when we got home.

An anniversary, of sorts

2010-08-02T04:25:00.000-07:00

It was 3 years ago, on Saturday that we began the filming for our TLC show Kids By The Dozen. Christi and I have been reminiscing a bit as our little Laura Mae (She was in the belly for the filming) has been asking to watch the show very frequently in recent days. "Watch Mommy-Daddy!" she says and we or one of the kids will bring up the show on the DVR.

Christi and I were talking about that first day, meeting the crew and the producers. We had already met Laura Swalm by that time as she had come out for the initial meeting with the executive producer, Bernadette McDaid. On the first filming day, however, she arrived with an assistant, two cameramen, Dane Lawing and Ronny and our sound guy, Brad. We were introduced to everyone and over the course of that week, we got pretty familiar with them. Christi reminded me how nervous she was on that first day, compared with 4 days later, we came to expect to see the crew sitting around the living room every morning, Starbucks in hand waiting for us to get the kids up and presentable. We had a lot of fun filming that show, we got to see a lot of cool insider stuff that happens when filming TV shows (we still point out stuff on other shows) and we made some friends. Christi is still in touch with Laura via Facebook and Chad still talks to the production assistant Trevor.

It was really a great time and I think we'd do it again if the chance came up.

One little envelope, holds the answer.

2010-07-27T05:24:00.000-07:00

Those of you who saw our TLC show, kids by the dozen, may remember that we had our ultrasound technician, Susan, put the results of the baby's sex in an envelope, which we then opened at our Anniversary party. This time, Christi did the same thing, only without a specific time set to open it and reveal what we're having. We just wanted to have the option.
Lately though, the temptation has been clawing at Christi something fierce. Her moods and cravings have been mixed, which has driven her crazy. Usually she has a pretty good idea based on those symptoms, but this time, she simply has no idea. The fun part for me is, I have hidden the envelope and she keeps asking if we should just go ahead and open it. I offer to give it to her, but she's not quite ready to reveal the secret. She asks me about twice a day now, and everytime she changes her mind. I'm kind of enjoying holding the cards on this one, but sooner or later, the temptation will be too great and she'll beg me for it.

Till then, I'm gonna enjoy watching her squirm a bit.

The ordeal is over....mostly.

2010-07-20T02:12:00.000-07:00

So it's been a little more than two months since we've posted. But we've got a really good excuse this time. Really. I'm sure some of you have seen that I posted a bit on Christi's facebook about the ordeal with the place we live in right now. For those of you that have not, here's the rundown:

We had been having a leak that was apparently from our bathtub and was soaking into our closet and peeling the linoleum up in the bathroom. The landlord made a claim against their homeowners insurance and the fun began. It started with the handyman coming by to check it out and pronounce that it would need a real plumber to fix (I could have made that assessment). Then the plumbers come by and determine that it's going to require removing the tub and breaking out the foundation around the drain to fix. Okay...so far so good. Then the insurance adjuster shows up and takes photos and a recorded statement from me and then pronounces to the landlord that "This won't be covered because there are too many people using the tub and that constitutes excessive use" (paraphrasing). The next day, the landlord calls and says that the insurance will indeed cover it and they want us out of the house ASAP so they can get started. This is a Wednesday and the very next day is Chad and Dalton's graduation ceremony. We're contacted by a company to arrange for our hotel stay. We had indicated that we might like to stay in Temecula to be close to Christi's dad, the easier to take the kids there for fun, but at the adjuster's advice we requested a room close to the house. Unfortunately, the only available place with 3 rooms and a suite type room is in Temecula, due to a big soccer tournament and the balloon and wine festival, so we end up there anyway (this would factor into our difficulties later). We're due to check in on Thursday, but we spend the whole day packing and getting things ready to go to the graduation. This is now more difficult due to the fact that Wednesday afternoon, a contractor has dropped off 3 large industrial drying fans and 2 dehumidifiers to begin the drying process for this whole repair situation. We were tripping over those all day Thursday as well as having to keep the kids from messing with this stuff. As it turns out, the drywall about 18 inches up all the way around the bathroom and our closet had to be removed and replaced.
Back to Thursday, we were running around like the proverbial chicken with the head cut off, about 90 minutes before we needed to be at the ceremony, and a tech shows up to test the walls for asbestos. We thought this would be an in and out deal, but it took him about 35 minutes. Meanwhile Christi is needing to shower and do all that girly stuff to get ready, so we were really pushed to the limit to get out to the graduation. We did make it, obviously, but our stress buttons had already been pushed. The graduation went well, by the way, which did ease things up for the moment. By the time we got home from the ceremony it was waaay too late to even think of packing everyone up and hustling over to the hotel for the night, so we had the boys check in for us and we left on Friday.
By the way, we did indeed have asbestos in the drywall backing, which necessitated a special crew to do the removal and drying process.
So for the next 3 weeks, we're living in 2 different hotels, having to eat more fast food than we'd like because we couldn't cook, having to herd the kids around all the while trying to be quiet and not disturb other guests. Also going back and forth to do laundry and let workers in and move furniture, because a second leak has sprung wetting the carpet in the living room, which prompted the landlord to decide to replace almost all the carpet with tile. They suggested that if we wanted the kitchen done too, we could move the furniture and appliances so they could do that. We had to send the boys over to do this for us, since I had to work, so the stuff didn't get moved as...efficiently....as it could have which became a whole other issue. All this compounded with difficulties that we were having with the adjuster which I won't go into in any detail as there may be a claim or some other further action pending at this point. It should suffice to say that Christi's stress levels were at the maximum. I was feeling it too, but let's face it, I don't have the kids on my hands 24/7 like she does...I at least had some escape at work. Oh yeah...I'm not 30 plus weeks pregnant and all....But my Babydoll...she is amazing in her capacity to cope.
I mentioned before that we stayed in a second hotel...that was a whole fresh level of hell to deal with. The booking company relocated us at our request once something close to home was available, since the hotel in Temecula was adding so much extra driving expense for us. In retrospect, we should have stayed put. In the first one, the manager and staff had some understanding of the situation, in the second hotel, we were on the premises for 10 minutes when the manager there approached me and began listing rules that the kids would have to follow and treating me as though I couldn't handle my own kids. I swallowed my resentment of this and we finished moving in, but it was quickly apparent that despite the fact that it was a brand new hotel, that it was built with very little quality. There was virtually no soundproofing in the place. I could hear the guy across the hall having phone conversations through 2 closed doors. Imagine how difficult keeping quiet was going to be with all the kids moving around. We work hard at it, but let's face it, whether you have 15 kids or 1 kid, they get rambunctious in unfamiliar places and here we were in a hotel where you could hear a mouse fart from down the hall.
After the whole hotel mess, we were then left with getting back into our house, the tile was installed by the landlord's handymen and they left a big mess of grout residue and tile cutting dust all over, razorblades lying around the house, we had to get all the furniture back into place, all the clothes back into the closet, we lost 3 pieces of furniture due to water damage which because of our deductible, won't get replaced. I wound up taking a total of 5 vacation days just to get our house in order, and although it was a huge pain in the...neck, we used the uprooting of the house as an excuse to do some spring cleaning/cleanout. We have gotten some good stuff done, but various things that were done or not done by the parties involved made the whole thing a horrible experience. We're still working through some of the after-effects of this whole thing, and now we're having to get back in the swing of everyday life. I'm sure that Christi will discuss more of this in various forums as she gets back online, but her computer access is limited since the home unit is kinda messed up. She has been using Chad's laptop from time to time, but eventually we'll have to get back to using the slow-as-molasses desktop we have.
Stay tuned for more updates and pretty soon, part 4 of "our story".

Ultrasound update.

2010-05-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

The ultrasound went well, the baby was in a really lousy position so it was difficult to get a good picture. The U/S dated the baby at 23w 5 days and approximately 1lb 5oz. The actual age is 22w 1day. We had the tech put a photo of the sex in an envelope, like we did for the TV show, and as yet we haven't peeked. We have been sorely tempted though. I wasn't able to be there, but it was a huge relief for Christi to be able to see a healthy baby. She had been worried, what with her age and the simple odds of having 16 healthy babies, she had been imagining all sorts of problems. But all is well, the heartbeat was a healthy 146 and all is looking good. Check out the below pics:

And, as always, our ultrasound tech, Susan, told Christi, "see you next year!"

She probably will...

The Story of us. Part 3

2010-05-05T05:05:00.000-07:00

True to my word, I called her on Sunday and we set up a meeting/date at the home of her friend Dana’s mother. As I recall, we had some dinner and then spent the rest of the evening talking about life, love, marriage and everything in-between. I’m pretty sure I fell in love with her right there in Shirley’s living room (and I wrote about it in a journal that I was trying to keep at the time. I even used the M-word in that journal entry). That same night, I met Chad. He was her 5-month old son and I fell in love with him too.
Over the next five weeks, Christi and I saw each other several times in a variety of settings, at friend’s houses, parties, and I even helped her move into her first apartment. It was during one of the days that I was helping her move that I first met her dad. That was a pretty chilly reception to say the least. Her dad is a former Army soldier with the 101st airborne who held a somewhat dim view of Marines. This of course, was not helped by the fact that Chad’s biological father was a Marine who had totally abandoned her and had never made any effort to contact her since finding out she was pregnant. Her dad helped me load her stuff into the truck, but other than the introductions, we hardly spoke a word.
Christi and I hadn’t spent as much time together over these weeks as we would have liked, so in late July we decided to spend a whole weekend together. Christi and I had discussed taking some sort of a trip away from the area, and had decided we would go into Northern California to see the famous redwood trees and enjoy one of the national parks. We left her apartment on August 2nd and almost immediately, stopped for drinks at a local restaurant. Having had one for the road (yes we know it was not wise, but we were young and stupid) we then headed north on the 15 freeway in the direction of highway 395 and the Kings Canyon/Sequoia national park. Somewhere along the way, we passed a sign that noted the mileage to Las Vegas which is along the same freeway. Christi looks over at me, and I think, only half-jokingly says “We could just go to Vegas and get married. This was followed by a strange but not uncomfortable silence as some gear inside me seemed to fall into place. I’m not sure that I really knew what I was doing as I exited the freeway and we found ourselves in the drive thru at a Del Taco restaurant, I just felt as though I was being directed by something bigger than myself. There, in the drive thru, I knelt outside the open passenger door and said

“Christi Sanders, will you marry me?”

You could have heard a pin drop, or at least in my head all the other sounds had fallen away, as I waited for an answer. It was really only a few seconds, but it seemed like forever when she answered “yes, Dave Cason, I will marry you.” I kissed her, and without any further fanfare, we got back on the freeway and headed for Las Vegas. Did we have a plan? Hell no! But we were surely headed on a strange and wondrous journey.

We had no idea…

Our answer to the Eco-nuts!!

2010-04-27T03:56:00.000-07:00

I came across this article linked at a news site that I peruse sometimes. Once I read the article, I almost jumped out of my chair because Christi and I have been saying many of the same things in response to stupid statements about how we're destroying the earth with our procreation. Although we're not Catholic, this writer sums it up just about as well as I've ever heard it. Just as she says:
"Moms of many already know that the work of caring for seven children is not the same as caring for one child times seven. In some ways, it’s easier. In the same way, many large families actually have a small-er carbon footprint than a typical family with one or two kids. A household of nine is not like a household of three times three. It just doesn’t work that way."
Christi and I have said much the same thing regarding our bunch. It's not as though our 5 under 5 is the same as having quints. That would truly make for a different dynamic, but it is a rare circumstance. As I'm sure all large families do, we have something of a system. We might be hard pressed to write a book about it, but it's a system none the less and a pretty efficient one.

Who knew it was a "Green" system too?

The Story of us, part 2

2010-04-13T03:51:00.000-07:00

Fast forward to a similar evening in late June, I was returning from a game of racquetball with my roommate when I passed a young woman with a beautiful head of brown hair standing with her back to me in the doorway of a fellow Marine’s room. Being the complete goof that I am, I blurted out, “There’s someone I don’t know, HIGH FIVE!”. The woman turned around and gave me the high five, and I saw that she was as beautiful from the front as she was the back. She smiled at me and then, out of the blue, she mentioned that she and her friends were going to the enlisted club and maybe it would be cool if I came along, saying “the more, the merrier!” I went back to my room after mumbling that maybe I would be there later, trying to play it cool, but not really believing that this attractive woman actually wanted me there. I mean, seriously I thought she was making the offer just to be nice. Once in the room, my roommate looked at me and was amazed that I didn’t see the opportunity before me. He nearly threw me into the shower and told me to get my butt out to that E-club and see where things would lead. So I went, now beginning to feel as though maybe some mysterious force was guiding me to the club.
I really had no clue what I was doing, but I went anyway. I hadn’t yet recognized her as Mark’s ex-girlfriend Christi. The whole scene happened so fast, my brain hadn’t caught up. Once I was at the club, I tried to get close to her, but the guy she was “supposed to be with” had her pretty well corralled and was trying to get her to dance. As I have since learned, this is no easy task. I danced with her friend Dana once or twice (under duress, because I don’t really dance either) and then thankfully a group of us tired of the dance club atmosphere and decided to move the party elsewhere. Somehow we all wound up at a small bar in downtown Oceanside, CA which was called the Sandbar (I think). Things there were much quieter as it was smaller pub type place that was luckily, not very busy at that particular time. It was here in this slower atmosphere that I had time to think about it and realized just who she was. I didn’t wish to be embarrassed, so I never mentioned that I hadn’t immediately recognized her. I didn’t know that she still didn’t recognize me.
We all had a few beers and then some of the guys and I began singing these rather bawdy rugby songs that we all knew. Christi had begun to warm up to me by that point and I was able to make her laugh a little bit. Her laugh was warm and just a bit throaty and when she found something extra funny, it would end with just a tiny snort, for which she would immediately apologize (she had no need, everyone thought it was cute and I still find it adorable). She was refreshingly unaware of how cute she was in her black and white polka dot pants as she bustled around talking to people in our group. She had finally gotten more comfortable and watching her move around spreading her infectiously fun personality, I was completely smitten. Luckily for me, her date had begun to give up as she had stayed pretty cool with him. He was just not her type.
I was really hoping to find out that I was “her type”.
By the end of the night, when I walked her to Dana’s car, I was feeling brave enough to try for her number (and I’ve never been brave in that way) which she gave me on the promise that I not call until Sunday so that her dad wouldn’t know where she’d been on Friday.

I still have the card that she gave me with her number on it.

To be continued

The story of us

2010-04-10T08:42:00.001-07:00

It was May 1991, I don’t remember exactly what day, but it was still a just a little bit cool in the evenings here in Southern California. I was stationed at Camp Pendleton, living in the enlisted barracks for permanent personnel at the Weapons Training Battalion of the MCRD. This is where San Diego recruits come for their weapons and field training while in boot camp. I was working across the street at the Marine Corps Tactical Systems Support Activity (MCTSSA) which is a research and development command.

One evening, after late chow, one of my co-workers came by my room and mentioned that he was going out to meet his girlfriend near the local mall and he needed a wingman, since she was bringing along her sister. I wasn’t sure at first, but my roommate urged me to go, saying that it would be just what I needed to get out for the evening.

When we arrived at Carlos Murphy’s, the only one at the table was Mark’s girlfriend Christi, her sister having stepped out to “powder her nose” as they used to call it. I was immediately struck by her beautiful brown eyes and the smile that was in them. Introductions were made and we sat on the stools that surrounded the corner table. Within moments, we were joined by Christi’s sister, Tammy. Tammy was pleasant enough and the conversation bounced easily around the table. Much to the detriment of the overall plan, Tammy was not at all attracted to me and although we got along well, nothing seemed to be developing. I was however, chatting quite handily with Christi, who was funny and bright and clearly, way out of Mark’s league in terms of personality, (and mine too, if the truth be told). Mark was a nice guy, but not the sort you would expect to be with a fun person like Christi. We attempted to go to a nearby movie theater (where I moonlighted as an usher) but were too late to get into the latest show. Tammy took this opportunity to excuse herself, saying she had a class in the morning and homework to finish (college) and she got in her car and drove away, leaving Christi, (and me) to catch a ride with Mark. As the ride back to the barracks went on, it was more and more obvious that Christi and I were getting along a bit too swimmingly for Mark’s taste as he was increasingly hurried about getting me back and dropping me off. When we did reach the barracks parking lot, Christi said goodbye with a warm smile and waved as they left. I sauntered up the barracks stairs feeling oddly happy despite the fact that my tour as wingman had crashed and burned and I hadn’t even secured Tammy’s phone number. I didn’t care. I felt strangely satisfied even though I had gotten nowhere with my intended date.

To be continued...

17 weeks pregnant with Cason #16, woohoo!

2010-04-02T09:38:00.000-07:00

Here I am, 39 years old, 17 weeks pregnant with my 16th child, no make-up at all, no smile, looking into the sun, but really wanted to share my baby bump and I felt the baby twice last night (4-1) for the first time, I was screaming DAVE DAVE and he thought something bad happened, lol, I felt the baby, I felt the baby, wooohoo I felt my baby for the first time, see right now it is my baby, I will share later ;) I saw my amazing Dr. Elfelt on 3-30, baby sounded GREAT, heartrate sounds Dirly as my Wooty (Walker) would say. 8 girls and 8 boys, sounds awesome, well so does 9 boys and 7 girls, but then #18 would have to come with #17, lol twin girls, lol. :):) So happy to have a heartbeat and now movement, woohoo woohoo, I LOVE BEING PREGNANT :)!!!!

We are still waiting on the bank for the short sale on the house.
Christi Mommy to 15 Beauties and soon 16!

What we’ve been up to

2010-03-10T06:51:00.000-08:00

In the past few weeks Christi and I have kind of been absorbed by our house hunting efforts. We saw a number of houses here in the local area and even put offers in on several. We had high hopes for one that was only a block away from where we live now, but had a complete ½ acre that was already landscaped, a fireplace in the master bedroom that Christi fell in love with and some great spaces that would lend themselves to renovation for extra bedrooms. Unfortunately that one was scooped up by an investor with cash in hand. We were initially following the strategy of bidding high and asking for closing costs but it seemed to get us nowhere. Then a funny thing happened. A house in short-sale that Christi and I had seen online before our pre-approval came through, came back onto the market after the escrow on it had gone south. The asking price on this one was $175,000. Our initial move was to again bid high, we offered $206,000 hoping to completely shut down the competition. They actually counter-offered with $200,000 but asked for an extra $3900 cash before closing to satisfy a second mortgage. I’m not exactly sure what happened to us then, but somehow even though the actual price came down, the sudden addition of the cash for the second rubbed us the wrong way, plus Christi’s dad took a look at the place and suggested that maybe the price was a bit steep, so we didn’t sign the counter offer and let it slide. We went on to look at a few more places, and even submitted another offer on one that we weren’t completely thrilled about. As we were in the office working up the paperwork, our agent was scrolling through the listings and came across the short sale we had offered on before. Apparently, the other buyers who had been countered at the same time we were hadn’t returned the counter offer either so it was once again available with no pending offers. It was then that Christi and I decided to pounce. We countered with our own offer at asking price, $175,000 and asked for some closing, while agreeing to the $3900 cash for the second. Surprisingly, this was accepted by the owner. Last week the bank holding the second accepted their portion of the offer and now we are just waiting for the main bank’s response. We’re told it will come no later than the 19th so we’re almost there. Our agent feels pretty certain it will be accepted because the bank initially accepted an offer for the same amount. I’m hoping it comes in sooner rather than later. I’m itching to get into escrow and get both the home and septic tank inspections completed. This house is such a great fit for us. It’s a 4 bedroom, 2-1/2 bath on a 1/3 acre lot. It has a nicely upgraded kitchen, new carpet and tile, upgraded bathrooms that all match and each of the bedrooms are really pretty large. Plus it has a “family room” area that will be perfect for adding in a 5th bedroom. It has a huge laundry room area and a nice 2 car garage. Best of all, it’s in a nicer area with low tax rates and not on a racetrack like our current place is. We’re looking forward to moving as a chance to clear out our clutter and start fresh in a new place. This is gonna be sooooo good for us and the kids. We’ll update as this process moves along.

Here are a few more pics.

2010-02-25T09:49:00.000-08:00

OK here is one pic, not the best one, but wanted to get one up.

2010-02-22T15:09:00.000-08:00

Everyone is looking everywhere else, lol. :)

Waaaaaahoooooo today is picture day!

2010-02-13T08:11:00.000-08:00

We are finally taking family pics today, we have not in 8 months, in fact almost 8 months exactly, I am so so so so excited, to get some new pics of my babies!!! You know it does not matter if they are 20, they are still and always will be your babies! OH and we have other news to share, we will take pics of that news too!!! I hope to be back later with a picture overload!! I am so excited!! I am also 10+ weeks preggo, so past the 8 and 10 week marks, woohooooooooo, I am going to be a Mommy again, YEAH! I am doing a little dance, I call it family picture day dance!

A rose by any other (nick) name…

2010-02-10T14:29:00.000-08:00

Over the years, Christi and I have had our share of difficulties in choosing names for the babies. We have our rule that we don’t use the same letter of the alphabet twice, plus we try really hard not to pick overly common names. Furthermore, although we don’t have anything against them, we don’t have any urge to use any of the more traditional biblical names. So you can see how we might have a bit of trouble thinking up names. When it comes to nicknames, however, anything goes.

It probably started for Jessica when her Grandma started calling her Tootsieroll because of her fondness for the candy. Christi and I didn’t really use that one though, we usually called her Jessy or Messy Jessy. Then one day, because of something she said, and I don’t remember exactly how it came about, we started calling Guss me (she had said something like, “It’s guss me, Jessica”) The one that has stuck though, has been Gussa. Her little brothers and sisters almost always said her name that way before they could speak well, calling her both Gussa and Gussica at one point or another. So Gussa has stuck, so much so, that I have her in my cell phone as Gussa.

Chad has gone through Chaddy, to Chaddy pooh, Paddy and Paddy pooh. Pretty much always something like that. There was however, a period when he was going through that grumpy teenager stage when we (mostly me) called him “Sunshine” or sometimes “Captain Sunshine”. I still call him Sunshine when he’s in a mood, but Paddy pooh is the one that has really stuck around. I even went into our cell phone account and fixed it so that his caller ID shows up as Paddy. If you doubt me, have him call you, you’ll see.

Dalton’s nickname…well I’m not sure where it came from. We started out just calling him Dalton-man, and we used to sing his name in that song by They Might Be Giants called Particle Man. We used that for a pretty good while, and Austin still calls him that, but then it somehow changed to Schmoo. I’m not really sure where we got it, but we began calling him variously, Dalton Schmoo and just Schmoo. His cell phone has the same set up as Chad’s, when he calls, you get Schmoo Cason. I’m hilarious like that.

Austin’s nickname was just a total case of being silly but having nothing clever to call him, we just rhymed our way to “Austin Bostin Schlostin. We use variations on that and add in other rhyming words. Trouble with this nickname is it’s kind of hard to say in an angry way, so you can’t really use it to yell at him with. AUSTIN BOSTIN SCHLOSTIN!! Just doesn’t have the right angry ring to it, know what I mean?

Bailey’s nickname probably came from the song “American Pie”, by Don McClean, even though Christi can’t recall for sure. But for as long as I can recall, we’ve called her Bailey Pie, or sometimes Pee Pot Pie, Po Po Pie or something else involving Pie. She is our little Pie. She too got the cell phone treatment.

Gage got his nickname as a direct result of his personality. When he was little and his personality traits started to become more evident, Christi and I used to say he had a little attitude. A Gage-itude, if you will. Well that morphed into Gagey-tooty, Tooty-booty, Gagey-booty and so on. We both still call him booty. And he still has a Gage-itude. It fits him as well today as it did when we came up with it.

Kaylee is our little “Cookie”. I’m not entirely sure how we got to calling her that, but over the years she’s been, Cookie-snookie, Cookie-frookie, and whatever other silly, cutesy things that we could think of. Hers is also one that has stood the test of time and she is still my sweet Cookie Rae (Rae is Christi’s middle name too).

Harper has gone through a whole bunch of nicknames over the years because we really had trouble coming up with anything really cutesy that rhymes or really fits well with her given name. We have at times called her Harpity, Harpity-Barpity, Harper-Barper but what we seem to always come back to is Harpy. It’s not very clever and it doesn’t have any real special or secret meaning, but it’s what we call our sweet little Harpy.

Emma has really had a lot of variations of her nickname such as Emma-memma, Meema-leema, Memma-lemma and when she’s in trouble, we fall back on her first and middle names: EMMA VEE!!

As they get younger, they obviously have had less time to develop multiple nicknames which is the case with Rebekah. One thing about her name is that we really didn’t want her to end up with the nickname “Becky” and one of Christi’s friends told her that as long as we never call her that, she won’t use it, therefore neither will others. We have pretty much always called her Bekah or Beeky-boo and that’s pretty much it. If you knew her, you’d realize it’s a pretty good fit. She is absolutely a Beeky-boo.

Trevor has always been our Bubbs. That’s pretty much it for him other than rhyming it by adding Chubbs to it. I just call him “My Bubbs, My CHUBBS!!” Sometimes a little variation like “Chubbsy-Bubbsy” but really mostly just Bubbs. I usually yell that at him as he’s coming up the drive from his bus. He’s the only one that takes a bus because he goes to a special class for the hearing impaired.

Walker went through being called “Wockitty, Woo-kitty, Walker Woo and now he’s just Mr Woo Tee. How we got to Woo Tee, I’m not sure, but he’s completely owned that one as he even calls himself by his nickname. Sometimes we’ll ask him “who is it? And he’ll say it’s me, Woo-Tee!” He is such a big little man!

Morgan has a couple of active nicknames. We usually call him Dee-Dee, which is short for when we call him Morgan Dee-Dee, which is sometimes Mogen Dee-Dee. We’re not really sure what started that one, but his other major nickname came because he looks EXACTLY like Dalton when he was that age, therefore we call him Schmoo-2 or sometimes little Schmoo. Not only does he look like him, but he acts just like him as well.

We somehow got started calling Laura, Lola Falana, after the singer from the 60s and 70s. Mostly just because it amused us, but we used that for a long time. That one has kind of morphed into calling her Lolee-lo and I also like to call her Gogly-Gogly because that was something she used to go around saying all the time. She could have picked that up anywhere because she is probably the biggest parrot of all our kids.

Which brings us finally to Sawyer. We started calling him Soy Bean even before he was born, because we knew if it was a boy, we were gonna name him Sawyer Benjamin. Christi’s favorite is to call him Soy Sauce and I usually call him Little Man. Sawyer-boyer also makes the rounds as his nickname at times.

I have to say, with all the nicknames and variations thereof that we have used over the years, it’s a wonder that any of our kids ever learn what their real names are. With that and our penchant for talking babytalk, I marvel that they can even speak English as well as they do.

I wonder what sort of nickname number 16 will inspire.

I am a CRAZY FREAK, LOL!

2010-01-27T15:18:00.000-08:00

OK, so where do I start, hmm, ok, well for as excited and happy as I am about having another baby on the way, I guess sometimes it freaks me out, so here is the story. I was in my room on my bed with Sawyer (7 months) and Laura (2 year old) and my Son Gage (12) comes in and picks up Sawyer and says, your going to be a big brother, wow Mom I was just saying this to Laura, that she was going to be a big sister and here he is and now I am telling Sawyer he is going to be a big brother, ok so here is the freaky part, I jumped up and said, don't say that, no no no, he is the baby, he is the baby, it was like I was hit in the gut with, there is another baby on the way and will be smaller then Sawyer and it was more than I could stand, it scared me to think of another baby on the way, and what was I thinking having another and NO Sawyer is the baby, I took Sawyer and just held him so tight, he is the baby, it completely scared me and freaked me out! I think next time when I am asked if I am crazy, I will just nod and say, "YES I AM!" He is my little Soy Sauce, he is my baby.

A Beautiful Heartbeat, Fell in love, so tiny, so perfect, so loved.

2010-01-23T08:08:00.000-08:00

Our new Duedate is 9-8-2010. I was so scared and so worried, that after my appointment, I think it all hit me, was just so tired and did not want to post for some reason, I am sorry it took me this long to post an update.

This is pregnancy #21 for me, and I never just assume we have a baby with a heartbeat.
Something new happened to me, this is the first time, has shocked me and excited me, but I fell in love the moment I saw the flash, flash, flash of my baby's heartbeat, it dawned on me, that right in front of my eyes I was seeing their heartbeat, life, wow, my baby's heartbeat, awesome, so awesome, just fell in love, I have never been so attached from this early on, NEVER, if it is God's will, then that heartbeat will be beating in my arms, on my chest next to my heart in about 7 months, I can not even believe it. The baby had a nice strong fast heartbeat. Dr. Elfelt knows I do not look at the screen till he says we have a heartbeat, I just don't want to see anything if there is not one, so he said we have a heartbeat, and I pulled my hands away from my face and saw it, if I had not been lying down I would have been jumping up and down, going wooohoo, wooohoo! We have a heartbeat, so tiny, so loved, so wanted, my 16th baby, WOW!!!!!!! I am so happy to get past this first milestone!

Thank you so much for the prayers I was a scared nervous wreck and will still worry but a lot less now, thank you!!!
With Love,
Christi Mommy to 15 Crazy, Loving Kids and #16 on the way!!!

P.S. If you click the picture it will be fullsize.

Tomorrow, my 1st prenantal appointment, scared and excited.

2010-01-18T11:17:00.000-08:00

I am 39( turned 39 on C-Mas day 2009) and have 4 angels watching over me and although it has been a long time since I miscarried, I feel like a ticking time bomb at times. I will be 7 weeks and 5 days tomorrow and I made it past the 6 week mark and now to have a u/s and see the heart beat, will be another milestone, I am scared and excited at the same time. My appointment is 1-19 at 3pm PST, I am praying to see a heartbeat, and would love to see 2 heartbeats, I know GREEDY, just being honest though, if I can't be honest here, then what is the point of the blog. I am really hoping to see a heartbeat though. Thank you for listening.
Christi Mommy to 15 Loves, and #16 growing inside!

P.S. I will post a ultra sound pic tomorrow as long as we have a heartbeat.

House hunting............

2010-01-08T19:27:00.000-08:00

We finally are able to buy a bigger house, we will be sad to leave this 4 bedroom 1 bath home, but boy is it time! We have put our first offer in on a house, it is bigger than this house(sq ft wise) and has 2 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms right now, but we met with a general contractor to get his bid for making a large 5th bedroom and have some other things done too, the loan is an FHA 203K, we are hoping to hear by Tuesday if the bank is taking our offer. This has been a long journey and if it is not this house, we will have one in the next 3 months, woohooo!!

Thanks to everyone who said we should do a blog, it is kind of fun, and like many said, it's a fun way to update on our family, although we have not done any updating yet, ;) lol.

It is our beautiful DD's birthday, Kaylee is 11 today, so off to to eat cake with her!!
Happy birthday to my Kaylee, my little cookie!! I love you and am so proud of you!

Christi

Wow, how 2 lines can make such a difference

2009-12-31T10:10:00.000-08:00

Those lines are so beautiful to me, I keep checking my test, like the lines are gonna evaporate or something, lol. I am so excited, and just can not believe it, wow, we get to do this again, wow, amazes me still! Now as excited and happy as I am, I am also scared, scared silly.
:):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

Woooohooooo Blessing #16 is on the way!!

2009-12-24T15:04:00.000-08:00

I am so so so happy to say, that our 16th blessing is on the way!
Wooohoooooo #16 due 9-2-2010.

I now have to finish up Christmas stuff up, oh and the virus we got it, we think, lol ;)

Merry Merry Christmas to all!!!!!

With Love,
Christi Mommy to 15, #16 on the way, woooooohooooooooooooo!

No, really, it's true

2009-12-24T06:06:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to say that we will be posting as soon as possible with some pics and more details about what we've been up to. Although it's not the reason that I've put off posting for so long, yesterday our computer got sick so we're going to be down for a bit until we can cure the virus. It may require a full reload and we may lose our pics so I may have promised a bit hastily, but I'll try. I am doing this little bit from work in the meantime. Trust me, we've got lots of catching up to do. In the meantime, we hope that you all have a Merry Christmas (no lame PC Happy Holidays crap here!) and a very happy and prosperous new year.

God Bless us, one and all.

Happy Thanksgiving one and all!!

2009-11-26T03:15:00.000-08:00

Ok, Ok...we've been bad, bad bloggers, I know. You can't see it now, but Christi is slapping herself on the wrist. Actually she's sleeping, but you get my point. We've been remiss in our blogging duties and this is our mea culpa. It seems that our daily running around and our current battle with the stomach flu has crimped our blogging. That and we keep procrastinating on offloading the pics we've been taking for the blog and then tellling ourselves, "We'll do it later and then write that post we've been meaning to". Then later comes and goes and no post and...well that's how it goes.

But, here is an update, without the pictures and we'll get to those when we get one of these:

I had a friend in the service who carried one of these in his pocket and he'd bring it out whenever I'd make an excuse for something. Always good for a laugh.

As some of you may know, we've been doing the paperwork shuffle trying to get pre-approved for a home loan and after many, many phone calls and delivery of a thick stack of paper that spells out our entire value to the material world, we have finally gotten the go-ahead. We can now begin searching for a house in earnest. We actually had found one and looked at it informally the day it hit the market, and it was nearly perfect for us, but within 12 hours it had multiple offers stacking up. That is going to be one of the main problems we face in this search as the market pricing is so attractive and the supply of houses is short. That coupled with the ridiculous "special assessments" on homes in many of the areas we want to live (you'd be amazed) which drive the tax payments on these things sky-high. That is going to put a pinch on how much home we can buy or where we can buy. We'll keep you posted on how this goes.

Last Saturday the our band geeks marched in the Lake Elsinore "Unity in the Community" parade. We have pictures for that too, but the picture above applies to them also. It was fun to see them do their thing and they looked so good in their uniforms. Really cool.

This year we had planned to have Thanksgiving at our house, with a few friends and family, but those plans were interuppted by a wicked bout of the stomach flu. Christi and all of the little ones, from Austin down have been suffering the effects and as of this posting, we've still got little ones doing the "technicolor yawn" and Christi herself is still feeling quite ill. We're going to have to scale back dinner to whatever everyone is feeling up to eating.

So that's what we're up to. We plan to get to those pics this weekend, but that remains to be seen. We hope that everyone out there has a great Thanksgiving and enjoys the family and friends and the good times and whatever makes you thankful. Despite our bout with the flu, we're going to rejoice in the love of our kids and the time we spend together and we'll get through the yuckies as a family. We'll be keeping more up to date with the blog as we do have those pics and we'll have house hunting updates and if we're lucky...maybe we'll even have another special announcement.

God bless you and all that you hold dear.

Things that make me go hmmm as a Mom, Random Thoughts...

2009-11-01T09:50:00.001-08:00

This is Christi and these are my RANDOM thoughts about items and kids, lol.

#1 Kids and the things they do, item, permanent markers, and how they can pick the ONE permanent marker out of 20 washable markers, makes me wonder WHY, and how dumb am I to own such an item. So they take said item and mark their siblings, ok not so bad, then the walls, ok, can fix that, then the bed, and do it all in less than a minute, hmm, I need a lock box and I "Think" have no proof but think my kids can move at the speed of light.

#2 Kids again and item scissors, I am not even sure I need to say anything else, maybe they think they are saving me haircut money, maybe, or learning a new trade.

#3 Anything sticky, they can smell sticky, their sticky sense is amazing. They have ex-ray eyes and see things that get sticky, make sticky messes, through any object, like in a drawer, or in your purse, and they don't seem to mind being sticky either! I think when I buy things, I go hmmm, what is the sticky factor, is it worth it. Also when they find, smell, get sticky, they must get their siblings involved in the sticky gooey whatever. Just the other night my 3 year old Morgan broke eggs on my floor, like 5 eggs, now this has the sticky, icky, and smell factor, eggs smell. I won't even tell you about maple syrup, YUCK.Finally when they are at their stickiest that is when they want me, ohhh they want to touch my face and hair, they know , I can't prove it but they know, I am going eeew ick ick ick ewww on the inside.

Well I need to end it here for now, call of the wild needs me.

Christi Mommy to 15 or will this be changing soon ;)
Now you'll have to come back and see......... ha ha ha ha muwahaha :)

On her way home!!

2009-10-11T13:42:00.000-07:00

Just spoke to Christi, she is on her way home with her sister in the car (black Mustang convertible!) and she seems to have had a great time. I missed her a lot but am glad she had fun. She deserved a good time. It's funny how you know intellectually what a person deals with, but you don't really KNOW until you spend a weekend in their shoes. This is the first time that I have ever spent an entire weekend without her, except for one business trip I took, but that was about 11 kids ago. In point of fact, I really only got a partial taste because I didn't have any budgeting or scheduling work to deal with while trying to keep the kids fed, clean and safe. Plus I did have Jessica to help on the night I got called into work. But I definitely have a deeper appreciation for how she buzzes around keeping things nice and the kids fed and happy so that when I get home, things are nice for me. Hopefully she has some good pics to share and a tale or two about which to write a good post.

I can't wait!!

Some pics, but not of a car.

2009-10-05T01:58:00.000-07:00

We only got a chance to look at 2 cars this weekend and neither of them was suitable. The only upside to our driving 200 miles to see 2 P.O.S cars was that after the second, which was in Chula Vista, near where Christi grew up, we got to drive around her old stomping grounds a bit and see the house she grew up in. She is so excited to be going back there next Friday to her class reunion. I'm excited for her too, if not just a bit jealous. She's gonna have a really good time and she deserves it. I sure am going to miss her though. It's going to be a trying couple of days trying to imitate her juggling act, but I'll give it my best.

The kid's band events went well with Austin's band winning their competition and Bailey and Gage both having a successful parade. Gage being a 6th grader, can only participate in the marching "band" as a member of the flag squad, but he had a good time. Can't you tell?

Bailey hates getting her picture taken but there she is with her valve trombone. These photos were taken by Christi's best friend, Dana with her Blackberry. We just recently got our own camera fixed so Christi should have some great pics from her reunion to share next week.

A busy weekend, and maybe some luck thrown in

2009-10-02T23:38:00.000-07:00

A busy weekend in store for Christi and I. We finally have to get it in gear with the search for a used car, the band kids have got events on Saturday and Christi still needs a couple of things for her reunion. This coupled with my having been unexpectedly moved to a different shift (not only am I now on the night shift for the foreseeable future, but I'm now on the opposite day schedule). All of this means that Christi is working her magic even harder now. She is constantly reminding me of the silver linings of this shift change, probably as much for her own benefit as mine. She always has that way of seeing all sides of things so that when life seems to throw us lemons, she can instantly point out that it's really oranges if you look at it the right way and who doesn't love a good orange? She doesn't really know how much she keeps me going. Aside from the obvious things like, keeping me on schedule for all the stuff we have to get done, her enthusiasm for stuff, like the way she looks forward to our weekend evenings, even when we have nothing more exciting to do than catch up on our favorite shows. The way she smiles and claps when some plan of hers comes together, or some unexpected bit of luck makes a bad day turn good. Plus the things she thinks I don't notice, like the little fist pump in the air she does when the checkbook balances perfectly (which it always does) or the way she high fives me when I put my hand up, even though she hates high-fiving. All those things and so much more are just a small part of why I love her so much.
So tomorrow we'll venture out in search of a used car, and she'll watch me do my manly thing as I check out each car and try to work a deal with the seller. With any luck, we'll come home with a decent commuter car that I can then drive to death with my 78 mile one way commute. With a little more luck, it will have a half-decent stereo so I can listen to my CDs and talk radio all the way to work. With even a bit more luck, we'll find a bargain car for Dalton too.
Then if all is well, in the evening we'll plop on the bed with most of the kids and watch our shows on the DVR and maybe have a little popcorn and whatnot to snack on.

That would be the perfect end to the day.

Life gets in the way

2009-09-17T18:52:00.000-07:00

Sooo, we started off this blog with a bang, on Sept. 11th of all days. And then...? Well, life got in the way. Here in the Cason household, we've gone through a bout of the flu (Walker, Emma, Morgan, Laura, and Bailey have all had it to one degree or another, now it's Dad's turn). All the while, Christi and I have been shopping online for a used car to replace the one recently totalled. This on top of the normal daily routine of Christi getting 10 of the kids out the door every morning to 4 different schools (I help a bit, but Christi is a blur and makes me look like I'm standing still), laundry, feeding the 4 littles still left at home, and a myriad of stuff I try hard not to think about (it would make my eyes bleed to think about the finances she juggles). Christi is also planning to go to her 20-year high school renunion in San Diego, so she's busy plotting the getaway with her sister. I'm so happy for her because she deserves a break for a couple of days. She's been in touch with a few of her old school friends on Facebook and she's looking forward to it.
The kids are fully in the swing of school now, with 5 of them in one band program or another and just the usual to and fro. Chad is driving himself to class everyday and Dalton is chomping at the bit waiting for his Aunt to get a new car so he can buy her old one. Austin is doing double duty with both marching band and jazz band, he plays the Euphonium (Yeah, I'd never heard of it either until Dalton and Austin started playing them) in the former and the trumpet in the latter. Gage also plays the Euphonium in the middle school band while Bailey plays the valve trombone. Even Kaylee is in the swing having started the clarinet in the 5th grade band program. I guess they got their musical abilities from Christi's side somewhere, because it sure didn't come from MY genetics. When I was in the service, a friend tried bravely to teach me to play the guitar, but he soon pointed out that maybe I should keep my day job.
That's pretty much my excuse for not posting for a week. It's not much, but it's my story and I'm sticking to it.

We remember.

2009-09-11T22:47:00.000-07:00

On this night of September 11th, having watched the various memorials on the news and hearing about it all day on the radio, Christi and I sit here tonight and thank God for our blessings and all that he has given us. Not material things, but the love of our children and each other and the safety and security of living in this great nation. The men and women who work to keep us safe from harm, should always be remembered, but especially on this day when we remember the almost 3000 that were taken from us on that day eight years ago. The innocent folks who were just going about their business in the WTC and the Pentagon, the travelers who boarded those 4 planes on their way home, or on business trips or maybe even a vacation. The heroes who, after the planes hit, went rushing in to save anyone they could. As you remember those souls whose deaths came on that September day, spare a thought for the later victims. Those who dug out the remains of the trade center, all the while breathing in the toxic dust that was created by the burning of the Towers. Many of the workers who unearthed all those bodies are now facing their own deaths from a myriad of conditions all related to their work at ground zero. Include them in your prayers and remembrances along with the men and women who protect us still today, at home and abroad. God bless our troops, the victims, their families and most of all, God bless America!