Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Well, that isn't what I wanted to hear...
We had another doctor's appointment today. We were really looking forward to it since we were getting to have another ultrasound to get a few views that the baby wouldn't allow last time. That bright thought was enough to make me not dread the glucose test I knew was coming. I obediently chugged that orange gunk down so fast that the lab techs went, "Whoa she is done already!" and waited my hour. Eventually we had the ultrasound and get another look at our little boy with Jacob awwing and how cuting all through the procedure before getting to see the doctor. The doctor gave us the news that the baby is absolutely great. The heart and neck look wonderful. (Everything else was checked last time.) And then he looked at me and said those words no pregnant woman wants to hear- "You failed your glucose test." Now I have to go back next week and have the three hour test. The doctor really wanted me to know that failing this test doesn't mean I have gestational diabetes, just that I might have gestational diabetes. Yay! (sarcasm there!) I am really praying that I do not have gestational diabetes. Hubby and I have been really trying to make excuses for why I failed- I am running a fever, I was absolutely starving, etc. I don't know if any of those can affect the result but we are hoping! Really we are just hoping and praying for good results next week!
Monday, December 27, 2010
When you're curious...
We have a nursery plan! Anyone that knows me knows that I love planning so woohoo! When I close my eyes I can see almost the entire room all put together and it completely excites me! I think what excites my hubby is that he won't have to paint the room to do it!
See, the guest room is becoming the baby's room. A few years ago we painted the guest room and hubby picked the color. At the store I warned him that the chip he had chosen would be a lot of color but he insisted he knew what he was doing. That night when he was painting he called me up and asked if I knew how much color that paint was. It is one of those stories that makes me giggle every time. Anyway, once the room was completely painted we realized that he had inadvertently picked the color blue that about 50% of my Curious George books feature on the cover, hence our naming the color Curious George blue. Once we made that realization we decided the guest room would house my Curious George collection. Yep, if you were ever a guest in my house you slept in the George room. Everyone needs a little whimsy somewhere, right?
Now, when we found out that we are having a boy Boogie immediately started advocating a Curious George nursery. Honestly he had advocated in that direction a bit beforehand too since he was worried that George would end up in boxes and he knows George puts a smile on my face. (Super sweet kid, huh?) Anyway, Boog gave me puppy dog eyes and lots of snuggles while he told me all about how cute a CG nursery would be. I promised to look and see if I could find anything CG related for a nursery. I did find a set, but it is a boatload of money and most of the set is red and white checked. It just didn't strike me as just right. But, just to be sure I covered all my bases with Boog I kept looking... and would you believe I found a CG crib sheet from pottery barn? It is a bunch of different drawings of George based on the original George (as opposed to the Will Ferrell movie or the PBS show) and is completely adorable! Once I fell in love with that sheet we knew for sure what the theme of this nursery would be!
So, we are reusing Boogie's crib, which is a natural wood, with that Pottery Barn sheet, a rich brown crib bumper (which I refer to as monkey brown though the manufacturer calls it earth), a monkey mobile (I plan to replace the green checked sleeves with sleeves made of CG fabric), a crib skirt made of some classic CG fabric that I found on eBay and a brown and blue crocheted blanket. The walls will stay CG blue but around the room there will be a single row of white shelves that will hold all of the George stuff I have collected, with the exception of some snugly ones that will be left down for him to play with. Now we can't reuse Boog's changing table since it had an accident 5 years ago, but we will be replacing it with one that matches the crib so it will be natural wood as well. We are going to use a monkey brown changing pad cover and some brown baskets with cute little monkey faces on them that we found at Toys R Us for storage on the shelves. We are avoiding having to buy a dresser by getting a closet organizer. Oh and amazingly the hangers that Kiddo stopped using with her room redo match the blue of the room so I have matching hangers already! Woohoo! The other thing we have is Boogie's glider and ottoman. It is nice to have a few big things under our belts already!
Now here is where we hit upon the part of the room that I am not sure about... When I found that beautiful Pottery Barn sheet I also discovered that they CG wall clings. They are $70 for five but each one is huge! They are very cute but don't be fooled if you look at them online. They are just George, no balloons or clouds like in the picture. As cute as they are I worry about the cost ( I mean those clings cost half the cost of the changing table we are looking to get) and whether big clings are the right way to go. It is kind of difficult to find George artwork but there are calenders that I can get where I can just pull out the pages and frame them for cute little wall art. Which would you choose?
When all of that is together then I will evaluate if the current white window scarf in the room should stay or if I should get something else, and just what color rug to put in the room. I think that covers all the bases. Can anyone think of anything I have missed?
See, the guest room is becoming the baby's room. A few years ago we painted the guest room and hubby picked the color. At the store I warned him that the chip he had chosen would be a lot of color but he insisted he knew what he was doing. That night when he was painting he called me up and asked if I knew how much color that paint was. It is one of those stories that makes me giggle every time. Anyway, once the room was completely painted we realized that he had inadvertently picked the color blue that about 50% of my Curious George books feature on the cover, hence our naming the color Curious George blue. Once we made that realization we decided the guest room would house my Curious George collection. Yep, if you were ever a guest in my house you slept in the George room. Everyone needs a little whimsy somewhere, right?
Now, when we found out that we are having a boy Boogie immediately started advocating a Curious George nursery. Honestly he had advocated in that direction a bit beforehand too since he was worried that George would end up in boxes and he knows George puts a smile on my face. (Super sweet kid, huh?) Anyway, Boog gave me puppy dog eyes and lots of snuggles while he told me all about how cute a CG nursery would be. I promised to look and see if I could find anything CG related for a nursery. I did find a set, but it is a boatload of money and most of the set is red and white checked. It just didn't strike me as just right. But, just to be sure I covered all my bases with Boog I kept looking... and would you believe I found a CG crib sheet from pottery barn? It is a bunch of different drawings of George based on the original George (as opposed to the Will Ferrell movie or the PBS show) and is completely adorable! Once I fell in love with that sheet we knew for sure what the theme of this nursery would be!
So, we are reusing Boogie's crib, which is a natural wood, with that Pottery Barn sheet, a rich brown crib bumper (which I refer to as monkey brown though the manufacturer calls it earth), a monkey mobile (I plan to replace the green checked sleeves with sleeves made of CG fabric), a crib skirt made of some classic CG fabric that I found on eBay and a brown and blue crocheted blanket. The walls will stay CG blue but around the room there will be a single row of white shelves that will hold all of the George stuff I have collected, with the exception of some snugly ones that will be left down for him to play with. Now we can't reuse Boog's changing table since it had an accident 5 years ago, but we will be replacing it with one that matches the crib so it will be natural wood as well. We are going to use a monkey brown changing pad cover and some brown baskets with cute little monkey faces on them that we found at Toys R Us for storage on the shelves. We are avoiding having to buy a dresser by getting a closet organizer. Oh and amazingly the hangers that Kiddo stopped using with her room redo match the blue of the room so I have matching hangers already! Woohoo! The other thing we have is Boogie's glider and ottoman. It is nice to have a few big things under our belts already!
Now here is where we hit upon the part of the room that I am not sure about... When I found that beautiful Pottery Barn sheet I also discovered that they CG wall clings. They are $70 for five but each one is huge! They are very cute but don't be fooled if you look at them online. They are just George, no balloons or clouds like in the picture. As cute as they are I worry about the cost ( I mean those clings cost half the cost of the changing table we are looking to get) and whether big clings are the right way to go. It is kind of difficult to find George artwork but there are calenders that I can get where I can just pull out the pages and frame them for cute little wall art. Which would you choose?
When all of that is together then I will evaluate if the current white window scarf in the room should stay or if I should get something else, and just what color rug to put in the room. I think that covers all the bases. Can anyone think of anything I have missed?
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Registry fun
Can you believe that when Justin and I registered at Babies R Us this weekend it was the first time I have ever made a baby registry? This is my third baby and I had never registered before. Crazy, right? With my first baby I felt like I didn't deserve anyone helping me out. With the second we felt that it would be wrong to register for the baby when we were also registered for the wedding. With this baby, we thought it wouldn't be right to register for my third child. And then.... one day I was sitting down trying to make a list of the things I need to get for the baby and writing down the web addresses for the particular ones I liked and I thought, "if only I could just click and save without ending up with a huge list on my favorites page." Ding, Ding, Ding! That is what registries are- lists. So we decided that we could use a registry as a list. It is really just an electronic reminder of what we have left to acquire. We know not to expect anyone to buy anything from our registry (not that we would complain if they did Haha!), but oh my goodness, it was so much easier than writing list after list and keeping track of things here and there. Now I can click and check. It was so easy to do, really pretty fun and is making things so much simpler to keep track of. No longer will I have to just remember what scent baby wash I liked, just which bouncy seat Hubby and Boogie could agree on, or (and this would have been supremely difficult) which little toys Boogie insisted the baby would like. I am really regretting never doing this earlier! Oh and did I mention they gave us a little present from pampers and coupons for doing it? Woot woot!
Friday, December 3, 2010
Stuck!
We officially know the gender of the little one I carry. Well, I should say either we definitely know or this baby has quite a birth defect growing out from between it's legs! Yep, it is a boy and now I am stuck. We had a name agreed upon for a girl (Everyone in our house thought this baby would be a girl!) but we have no idea for a boy. Now before people start throwing random names at me let me say we own a baby name book. We can find 50,000 random baby names. We don't want random baby names. Our babies names are intentional and purposeful. They are full of meaning.
We have a three prong (almost four prong) test for naming our children. Number 1, and most important, is that we name our children after great people. Catherine Viana was named after my grandmother and my great grandmother. One of those women showed me how to love even the broken people of the world and the other left such a beautiful mark on our family that I have always wished I could have grown up knowing her. Jacob Allen was named for my great grandfather and a great many men on his fathers side, including his own father. I don't need to expound what a wonderful man I think my husband is but I will say that my great grandfather was a dedicated and hard worker (you can be sure to know that by the fact that the man managed to get and maintain 2 jobs during the depression.) By naming my children after these people I am stating my hope that I can instill some of these great attributes into my kids. I hope to have children who genuinely care for and love others, work hard, make family important and never turn their back on the people who need them. This is important to me and it frustrates me to have people tell me to just give this up and name my children any ole name. Why would I do that to the third child? Don't you think that would tell this third child that they weren't worth the work of finding a meaningful name, but his brother and sister were? Seriously people!
The second thing that is important to us is the meaning of the name itself. Catherine means pure, Jacob is (obviously) a great man of the bible. It isn't that the names have to be quite as strong as these are but they must not mean things that scare me for their future. Sorry, but a name that means something like prone to sickness is really not going to OK for my kids! Ha ha!
The last prong is connotation. Did we know a great many people with that name that grated our nerves, or is their someone in history who lends a negative connotation to the name. You know what I mean here, right? I don't want a baby who shares a name with a serial killer or dictator! In this last prong (or you could consider it a fourth prong) we also think about how the names sound together and what the initials make. I mean, who wants HIV as their initials? Or how about being named Harry Larry? I am thinking either of those would lead to an easy opening for being picked on!
So, we know what the requirements are. Now we just need to figure out a name!
We have a three prong (almost four prong) test for naming our children. Number 1, and most important, is that we name our children after great people. Catherine Viana was named after my grandmother and my great grandmother. One of those women showed me how to love even the broken people of the world and the other left such a beautiful mark on our family that I have always wished I could have grown up knowing her. Jacob Allen was named for my great grandfather and a great many men on his fathers side, including his own father. I don't need to expound what a wonderful man I think my husband is but I will say that my great grandfather was a dedicated and hard worker (you can be sure to know that by the fact that the man managed to get and maintain 2 jobs during the depression.) By naming my children after these people I am stating my hope that I can instill some of these great attributes into my kids. I hope to have children who genuinely care for and love others, work hard, make family important and never turn their back on the people who need them. This is important to me and it frustrates me to have people tell me to just give this up and name my children any ole name. Why would I do that to the third child? Don't you think that would tell this third child that they weren't worth the work of finding a meaningful name, but his brother and sister were? Seriously people!
The second thing that is important to us is the meaning of the name itself. Catherine means pure, Jacob is (obviously) a great man of the bible. It isn't that the names have to be quite as strong as these are but they must not mean things that scare me for their future. Sorry, but a name that means something like prone to sickness is really not going to OK for my kids! Ha ha!
The last prong is connotation. Did we know a great many people with that name that grated our nerves, or is their someone in history who lends a negative connotation to the name. You know what I mean here, right? I don't want a baby who shares a name with a serial killer or dictator! In this last prong (or you could consider it a fourth prong) we also think about how the names sound together and what the initials make. I mean, who wants HIV as their initials? Or how about being named Harry Larry? I am thinking either of those would lead to an easy opening for being picked on!
So, we know what the requirements are. Now we just need to figure out a name!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Boogie and Baby
Let me lay something out for you. Growing baby makes me exhausted, so Boogie often tucks me in before his bedtime. Growing baby makes me nauseous, so Boogie has skipped his normal home cooked meals in favor of whatever his daddy can find around the house. Growing baby makes me dizzy, so Boogie always walks down the stairs with me and often even runs the stairs to get me things so I don't have to do it. Growing baby makes my feet swell and my back hurt, so Boogie rubs my feet and my back without my ever asking him to. Growing baby makes me wear out quickly, so Boogie doesn't get the outings that he used to. Boogie does so many sweet things for me while I grow baby. It seems to be a lot for a 5 year old to do. But Boogie doesn't think so.
Boogie asked last night if we could have more babies after this one. Boogie wants 10 babies total! He offered to do or take care of anything he has to in order to get those siblings. How amazing is that? I look at all the amazing things he has done and feel guilty that my little man has been so busy taking care of his mommy and he looks at it all and asks what else he can do. I look at the time frame of pregnancy and think I am asking too much of my family for too long while he looks at it and asks to multiply it by 10! I am still in shock at how amazing my little boy is!
Boogie asked last night if we could have more babies after this one. Boogie wants 10 babies total! He offered to do or take care of anything he has to in order to get those siblings. How amazing is that? I look at all the amazing things he has done and feel guilty that my little man has been so busy taking care of his mommy and he looks at it all and asks what else he can do. I look at the time frame of pregnancy and think I am asking too much of my family for too long while he looks at it and asks to multiply it by 10! I am still in shock at how amazing my little boy is!
Friday, November 19, 2010
15 minutes of happiness!
Wednesday was my latest doctor appointment and it was wonderful. We were only there for a total of 15 minutes! I am talking 15 from the time we walked in the door til the time we said goodbye! I walked in, immediately made it through check in, had my longest wait for the day in line for the potty, went back immediately, heard my beloveds heartbeat, talked about my meds and said see ya! The doctor even told me I was making his job very easy! Ha ha! I was so happy to hear that heartbeat! The Doppler barely touched my belly before we heard that distinctive sound. And what a heartbeat it is! When the doctor showed Hubby the heart rate was 170 and when he showed me it was 161. That is one thumping little heart!
As for the meds discussion I mentioned earlier, well, the doctor has decided to downgrade me to something with fewer side effects. I am nervous to switch since the old stuff works so well but since the old med has the permanent side effect of twitches if you take it too long I will give it a go! Ha ha! Here's to praying the switch goes well!
Oh and don't forget that on Dec. 1st we should find out the sex of this little one! Everyone can put in their guess and we will see who is right! :)
As for the meds discussion I mentioned earlier, well, the doctor has decided to downgrade me to something with fewer side effects. I am nervous to switch since the old stuff works so well but since the old med has the permanent side effect of twitches if you take it too long I will give it a go! Ha ha! Here's to praying the switch goes well!
Oh and don't forget that on Dec. 1st we should find out the sex of this little one! Everyone can put in their guess and we will see who is right! :)
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Tomorrow is reassurance day!
Tomorrow I will go to the doctor again.
Tomorrow I will get to hear my baby's heartbeat.
Tomorrow I will be reassured that everything is ok.
I know it doesn't make all that much sense but I hate being in a period of the pregnancy where I don't really have daily reassurance that the pregnancy is going well. As much as I hated being sick over and over and over every single day, it was a way to know my body was still very focused on being pregnant. And I know that eventually this baby will kick me so much and so often that I can't sleep, and I will probably whine about, but at least every kick will be a way for me to know that the baby is having a good time. Right now all I have is restless sleep, acid reflux and crazy emotions. I am pretty sure this stage is no walk in the park for my beloveds either! Anyway, tomorrow afternoon I should hear what I need to hear, what I haven't heard in exactly a month, the unmistakable fluttering that is this baby's heartbeat!
Tomorrow I will get to hear my baby's heartbeat.
Tomorrow I will be reassured that everything is ok.
I know it doesn't make all that much sense but I hate being in a period of the pregnancy where I don't really have daily reassurance that the pregnancy is going well. As much as I hated being sick over and over and over every single day, it was a way to know my body was still very focused on being pregnant. And I know that eventually this baby will kick me so much and so often that I can't sleep, and I will probably whine about, but at least every kick will be a way for me to know that the baby is having a good time. Right now all I have is restless sleep, acid reflux and crazy emotions. I am pretty sure this stage is no walk in the park for my beloveds either! Anyway, tomorrow afternoon I should hear what I need to hear, what I haven't heard in exactly a month, the unmistakable fluttering that is this baby's heartbeat!
Saturday, November 6, 2010
We may be through the first round
I hesitate to write this, but- we have made it through the first round of the rough stuff. Yesterday I took the entire day off from my nausea medicine. And... drum roll please... no huge fits of the belly. I only got sick once, even without my medicine. I know that this doesn't mean that I am in the clear. It could be a fluke. I am hopeful, however, that that is not the case. I am going to try again today. I am praying for a repeat. If I can say this part of the pregnancy is behind me I will sing a happy song!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Tide's tidal wave of lies
So, a few months ago Tide released an ad that featured a mother lying to her daughter. You know the one, right? The daughter asks her mom if she knows where her green shirt is and mom answers "it's really not my style", while reminiscing about wearing the shirt while acting like a teenager herself and staining it. The daughter leaves and the mom runs upstairs to find the shirt and launder it with Tide. Later we see the daughter wearing the shirt and the mom asks where she found it, making for her second lie in the ad by intimating that she had no idea where her daughter found it.
Well, guess what? They have a second ad out now that focuses on lying again. This time a husband is encouraging his sons to not tell Mom about eating something Dad shouldn't be eating. The kids warn him it is a bad idea, but he does it anyway. And then he spills on the tablecloth. Oh you are busted Dad. Nope, no need to be busted when Tide helps you lie. Just wash that tablecloth in Tide and continue to lie! Ugh! In the end he was so busy washing his tablecloth evidence that he left something on his face as evidence, but even then he tries to lie.
And I have to wonder why. Why is Tide focusing their ad campaign on lying? Why would anyone buy a product based upon an ad campaign about lying? Why can't their ad be about, oh, a child worrying about their favorite blanket being ruined by a stain and super mom saving the day with Tide? I just can't understand why even our ads nowadays undermine good parenting. It is sad, just sad. Kids are prone to lying anyway, but now even our ads show kids that lying is a small thing, that it is no big deal to lie. Do you think Mom would have been OK with her daughter lying had that been HER green shirt? How would Dad have felt if the kids were the ones hiding something they had been expressly told to not do? I can't for my life understand why anyone thought that was the right thing to show as life as normal!
How about you? Is lying to your kids or your spouse life as normal?
Well, guess what? They have a second ad out now that focuses on lying again. This time a husband is encouraging his sons to not tell Mom about eating something Dad shouldn't be eating. The kids warn him it is a bad idea, but he does it anyway. And then he spills on the tablecloth. Oh you are busted Dad. Nope, no need to be busted when Tide helps you lie. Just wash that tablecloth in Tide and continue to lie! Ugh! In the end he was so busy washing his tablecloth evidence that he left something on his face as evidence, but even then he tries to lie.
And I have to wonder why. Why is Tide focusing their ad campaign on lying? Why would anyone buy a product based upon an ad campaign about lying? Why can't their ad be about, oh, a child worrying about their favorite blanket being ruined by a stain and super mom saving the day with Tide? I just can't understand why even our ads nowadays undermine good parenting. It is sad, just sad. Kids are prone to lying anyway, but now even our ads show kids that lying is a small thing, that it is no big deal to lie. Do you think Mom would have been OK with her daughter lying had that been HER green shirt? How would Dad have felt if the kids were the ones hiding something they had been expressly told to not do? I can't for my life understand why anyone thought that was the right thing to show as life as normal!
How about you? Is lying to your kids or your spouse life as normal?
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Great great news!
The doctor's apt. today went really well! All of the fears from last week were allayed. My blood and 24 hour catch came back fine as long as I can continue to keep food and drink down. The doctor wants me to continue to take my meds. So I will continue to be a little dizzy and drowsy but we all agree that is better than being sick!
Now for the important parts...The baby is doing great! The heart rate today was 175! How crazy is that? And s/he was doing jumping jacks in there. The doctor was very pleased with the baby's movement and heart rate. He wants me back in 4 weeks for a routine apt and then two weeks after that will be in big ultrasound. You know, the one that takes an hour. I am allowed to take three people in with me. Justin and Jacob make two so I have room for one more! ;)
The only other thing I have to say is YAY!!!!
Now for the important parts...The baby is doing great! The heart rate today was 175! How crazy is that? And s/he was doing jumping jacks in there. The doctor was very pleased with the baby's movement and heart rate. He wants me back in 4 weeks for a routine apt and then two weeks after that will be in big ultrasound. You know, the one that takes an hour. I am allowed to take three people in with me. Justin and Jacob make two so I have room for one more! ;)
The only other thing I have to say is YAY!!!!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Some blessings come with a catch
Ha ha! This little baby is really giving me a run for my money. The doctors have me on taking five pills a day not counting vitamins, and if I miss one I really regret it. And all this is just so that I can eat or drink anything in a day! Yikes! I needed to be steady enough to drive Jacob to dance class yesterday so I skipped one pill. My body is freaking out now. I am back to getting sick and I can't sleep again, though I still feel exhausted. At least this pregnancy I don't have multiple jobs to maintain, majoy relationships ending, a wedding to plan or have to move. I guess that is my extra blessing there, that the difficult pregnancy is coming when I am in a situation where I can rest when I need to, hole up in a dark silent room when the migraines hit and get back rubs when required. My goodness I love when my man is good to me! :)
I go to the doctor tomorrow for them to check on me. Hopefully I will have some great news then!
I go to the doctor tomorrow for them to check on me. Hopefully I will have some great news then!
Friday, September 10, 2010
I've been blessed
Yes, I have. I have been blessed. Hubby and I are expecting another child in April. And we are so excited. I knew when I was still pregnant with Boogie that he should not be the end of our families expansion plan. And boy was I right. I have felt, most every day, that there should be another child in our home. And now, after over five years, there is going to be! It took a long time to get Hubby on board. He looks at the just the finances and the room and the energy it takes and I look at the emotion and the love and the yearning. So, it took five years for us to be on the same page. But at last we were and God was good enough to bless us with a pregnancy after less than 6 months of trying. How amazing is that?
Monday, July 12, 2010
Florida Fun- sort of
We are back from our time in Florida, and all that it included. The plan was to go down a week early so that Hubby could work from the main office for a week and then stay a week after to do fun things with the kids. Wow did the plans have to change and change and change! First of all, we were a mere 4 days from leaving before we got official confirmation that Hubby was wanted in the main office that week. Talk about a planning momma's worst nightmare! Once we got confirmation we got things set quickly and headed out. Unfortunately it had taken them so long to make that decision that we had to limit our second week to a few days. Additionally, at the last minute we got a call from my Nanny that she had a place for us to stay for a few days so we could cancel our hotel reservations. Works for us! So we drove, and we drove and we drove. It is quite a drive to lovely Florida from our house and we always forget how long the drive seems to be until we are making it again! Haha! At least Boogie was wonderful!
By the time we arrived it was about 4 am and Hubby had to be at work at about 8 am. Did I mention the time difference between home and Florida? Yeah, it made everything seem worse. So we get to the hotel that had been advertised as newly renovated only to discover that the new renovations had been done by drug addicts and bugs. It was a dump, a slum, a nasty slimy, itchy hole! No literally, there was a huge hole in the wall of the first room they sent us to. Additionally there was an in room safe that was locked (which made us really concerned about what was in there and if we would get blamed for it), huge stains on every surface, and every drawer was broken. Not good. So Hubby went and told the guy at the front desk. He gave us another room. This room was just as stained but lacked the hole and the safe. No really, this room had no safe at all. I immediately had visions of our electronics having to be carried with me everywhere I went that week. I was trying to use my, by that time, extremely sluggish brain to figure it all out when something bit me. And then something else. And then something else. Hubby and Boogie passed out and decided to handle it for the night but I could not sleep with all those little creatures biting me. After an hour of itching I got up and started looking for a new hotel online. I found one we had stayed at before and loved that had a really good rate and made the decision to try and convince Hubby to go for it. Thankfully when he awoke he took one look at my bite marks and said he wasn't going to subject me to that.
I called the new hotel and asked for a room at the rate I had found online. No problem they said. I asked if it would be OK if we came and did the paperwork early before check in time since I am not authorized to use Hubby's work card. I told them what had happened and they were shocked and said they would see us in ten minutes. I wanted to do a very tired happy dance. Wait, it gets better. When we got there to do the paperwork they gave Hubby the key and said we were free to go in right now! At 7:30 in the morning! They have officially won my loyalty and I will never stay anywhere in Tampa other than there! I dropped Hubby off at work and then went back to the new hotel to wash away the bugs and sleep. I gave Boogie a DS, turned on Nick Jr. and went straight to sleep until 1!
When I woke up I knew I had to take Boogie to do something so we went out to shop and get lunch. The mall I chose really made me wish I didn't have a broken foot. They had ice skating! Boog wanted to try it out so bad! :( At least he had fun just being with Mommy! We enjoyed being together enough that we were late picking up Hubby from work.
The next day Boogie and I decided to hobble through Lowry Park Zoo. It is a really cute zoo, but the things most people actually paid attention to weren't animals. How crazy is that? The kids were all playing in the fountains and the families were all riding rides. I can't imagine why you would pay to get in to a zoo and then do the carnival rides or play in the fountains you can find at most nice parks! Jacob and I were rather intrigued by the opportunity to feed the rhinos and the giraffes. Too bad silly Mommy hadn't brought enough cash with her! Oops. Seriously, I had no idea. And it became a huge issue in the late June Florida sun when all of the drink machines in the African section of the zoo refused to take what I had! Oh my goodness! I thought I was going to faint! The carts were all closed. The restaurant was closed. And that section of the zoo is totally isolated from all the rest! YIKES! Once we made it back from the brink we stopped and had some ice cream together. I kept looking over at Boogie having those moments where you just want to be able to freeze that moment in your memory. He is such a sweet boy! We finished up the zoo earlier than I had expected and tried to call Hubby and say he didn't have to work late on our account, unfortunately by then he had to work late on works account. Pout! So we headed back to the hotel to wash up.
And this is where the trip really goes awry! I decided to Nair my legs and thighs so I could take Boogie swimming the next few days. After about a minute my thighs started burning really badly. I wanted to scream! I decided to heck with this and started rinsing my legs. But the burning wouldn't stop. I couldn't figure it out. It hurt so much! Hubby called to say he was done with work and a co-worker was going to drop him off. I thought thank goodness because I am not putting anything on this burning right now! When he got there he looked at my legs and said ouch but we both thought it was over. Not so!
When I awoke the next morning I discovered I had bled in to the sheets- a lot! The sores that had seemed pretty bad the night before were two to three times as large now. They were about nine inches long and two to three inches wide, on my inner thigh. I bet you can imagine how it felt to walk! I just wanted to cry! Hubby decided to walk to work (since the hotel was only a mile from work) and left me to try and figure things out.
I couldn't tell Boogie I was going back on my promise to take him swimming. As it was we knew the beach was out of the question! So I glued my knees together and geisha walked to the pool. I stayed in a crouch in the pool like John Leguizamo in The Spawn for three hours! Eventually Boogie was ready to go back to the hotel room. He played some more DS and I did some research. Apparently, that junk continues to eat through your skin until you soak yourself in cool water for at least ten minutes! Seriously, why didn't they put that on the bottle? I would have soaked the night before! AGH! Keeping my promise to Boog is what kept the chemical burns from getting any bigger than they already were.
When Hubby got home that night he said I was to stay in bed and not move for the next few days to try and give myself some time to heal. He was really not happy at the size of the dang things, or the fact that I was openly bleeding! In fact, I kept openly bleeding for over three days! I seeped and pussed for three days more than that as well. We can definitely mark Nair down on the list of things to never ever buy again!
While I am mentioning having to be bedridden I should mention that my Boogie deserves a medal for those days. He helped my bandage the wounds, never complained about not being taken out and did whatever he was told. He was a perfect nursemaid and a perfect help. So many days of his life I look at him and can not imagine how I came to be so blessed!
Finally, it was Friday. We had to check out and Hubby had to work. That meant I couldn't stay in the bed all day. We bandaged me up and I put on the geisha walk again! I took Boogie out to visit his great grandfathers grave and he insisted on putting together a bouquet of flowers. It was the oddest conglomeration of flowers ever, but it was really sweet. He even cleaned the headstone placard thingy. Man is it hard to find the headstone though! If I am buried with a headstone or placard I think I want those big find me here lights put on there or something. It took us an hour and three phone calls to find the thing! We finished just in time for Boogie to play on a playground for a while before picking up Hubby and heading to my Nanny's.
Hubby was waiting for us and we made good time out to Nanny's so we had time to get ready for the wedding that night. Ahh yes, the real reason we aimed for this trip to Florida. Another wedding. This time it was my cousin, Lizzie, getting married. I hurried us all through getting ready only to discover that there was no need to hurry. The wedding was over an hour late getting started! Once it got started it went really well. Everyone got along and Matt and Lizzie were wonderful at seeing all of their guests. I could see just how much had gone into making that wedding beautiful. Lizzie, her mom (my aunt) and her sister had hand painted us all coffee mugs. They are so gorgeous!
The next day was a party designed just for the happy couple to get to spend more time with their guests. My other aunt made ribs, there was a water slide and we all played games. Of course I couldn't go on the water slide but my hubby enjoyed it. Boog on the other hand... yikes. He was so excited at first. And then he got scared. But he mustered up the courage to do it... only to have his sister come down on top of him and nearly drown him. He got the wind knocked out of him and then held under the water. It seemed like the rest of the day was spent trying to convince him to give it another try. Poor guy. The only time we weren't dealing with him and his new fear was when we were dealing with my daughter having popped her shoulder out and then back in when she fell! Man oh man! Don't get me wrong, it was a good day. We had fun. I just wish my normally low maintenance family hadn't been so high maintenance that day!
Our next day was spent at Downtown Disney. I love that place! The kids made a car at Ridemakerz. We had lunch at Wolfgang Puck's (not worth it but still enjoyed by all.) We shopped at every store we saw! Ha ha! We even had an appetizer and dessert at T-Rex. By the way, totally repeatable! It was super yummy and fun! We were disappointed by the downtown Disney 4Th of July dance party though. I seriously kept thinking, "Oh I bet this man goes home and cries in his beer over having this job!" It was just... sad! Overall it was a fun day. For the most part you are immersed in Disney without paying $82 a person to do it. Oh man though, next time I really want to ride in the big hot air balloon! That looked incredible!
Our final full day in Florida was spent at the Magic Kingdom. We had (except for Boogie who isn't old enough) all earned a day at Disney by making Easter eggs for the animals at the zoo. It took us a while to decide what park to use it on but in the end it had to be MK! And what a day! We rode virtually everything there was to ride. It was incredible! We rode somethings two to three times. No one ever accomplishes that on a summer day! I still can't believe it! We were disappointed that the parades were cancelled due to rain, but summer nightastic still went off so that was a great end to the day. Again, an overall good day!
And now came the day of dread- driving day! We really did not want to get in the car! At the same time we also didn't want to get home at 4 am! So we kept trying to leave. We would try to leave and find something else we had to do. Then we would try again and find something else. The next thing we knew it was 1 pm! Oh no! We decided we had to leave right right now! We hollered for the kids and headed to the car. The next thing I know my kiddo is walking around a corner with Boogie in her arms. She didn't want to leave Nanny's so she convinced him to go hide with her. Did I mention he was barefoot? Did I mention that she took him to hide somewhere with broken glass. Again we got to be super happy to have a nurse in the family because his foot was bleeding a lot, A LOT! Pristine cleaned it all up and bandaged it and told him to wear a sock to keep it clean. Pristine if you are reading this- he didn't take that sock off for a day and a half. Nurse's orders he kept telling me! Thanks again. After that we finally made it into the car.
I could see how tired Hubby was so I offered to drive for a while so he could get some rest. NO no No. He wouldn't allow it. He was going to drive us the whole way home. Til the sun went down and he couldn't take it anymore. Then I had to take over, myself exhausted since I am not allowed to sleep when he drives, the last 4 or 5 hours of the trip. Home has never before looked so good as it did that night. My bed has never before felt so good as it did that night. My city has never before looked as pretty as it did that night. We were home at last!
By the time we arrived it was about 4 am and Hubby had to be at work at about 8 am. Did I mention the time difference between home and Florida? Yeah, it made everything seem worse. So we get to the hotel that had been advertised as newly renovated only to discover that the new renovations had been done by drug addicts and bugs. It was a dump, a slum, a nasty slimy, itchy hole! No literally, there was a huge hole in the wall of the first room they sent us to. Additionally there was an in room safe that was locked (which made us really concerned about what was in there and if we would get blamed for it), huge stains on every surface, and every drawer was broken. Not good. So Hubby went and told the guy at the front desk. He gave us another room. This room was just as stained but lacked the hole and the safe. No really, this room had no safe at all. I immediately had visions of our electronics having to be carried with me everywhere I went that week. I was trying to use my, by that time, extremely sluggish brain to figure it all out when something bit me. And then something else. And then something else. Hubby and Boogie passed out and decided to handle it for the night but I could not sleep with all those little creatures biting me. After an hour of itching I got up and started looking for a new hotel online. I found one we had stayed at before and loved that had a really good rate and made the decision to try and convince Hubby to go for it. Thankfully when he awoke he took one look at my bite marks and said he wasn't going to subject me to that.
I called the new hotel and asked for a room at the rate I had found online. No problem they said. I asked if it would be OK if we came and did the paperwork early before check in time since I am not authorized to use Hubby's work card. I told them what had happened and they were shocked and said they would see us in ten minutes. I wanted to do a very tired happy dance. Wait, it gets better. When we got there to do the paperwork they gave Hubby the key and said we were free to go in right now! At 7:30 in the morning! They have officially won my loyalty and I will never stay anywhere in Tampa other than there! I dropped Hubby off at work and then went back to the new hotel to wash away the bugs and sleep. I gave Boogie a DS, turned on Nick Jr. and went straight to sleep until 1!
When I woke up I knew I had to take Boogie to do something so we went out to shop and get lunch. The mall I chose really made me wish I didn't have a broken foot. They had ice skating! Boog wanted to try it out so bad! :( At least he had fun just being with Mommy! We enjoyed being together enough that we were late picking up Hubby from work.
The next day Boogie and I decided to hobble through Lowry Park Zoo. It is a really cute zoo, but the things most people actually paid attention to weren't animals. How crazy is that? The kids were all playing in the fountains and the families were all riding rides. I can't imagine why you would pay to get in to a zoo and then do the carnival rides or play in the fountains you can find at most nice parks! Jacob and I were rather intrigued by the opportunity to feed the rhinos and the giraffes. Too bad silly Mommy hadn't brought enough cash with her! Oops. Seriously, I had no idea. And it became a huge issue in the late June Florida sun when all of the drink machines in the African section of the zoo refused to take what I had! Oh my goodness! I thought I was going to faint! The carts were all closed. The restaurant was closed. And that section of the zoo is totally isolated from all the rest! YIKES! Once we made it back from the brink we stopped and had some ice cream together. I kept looking over at Boogie having those moments where you just want to be able to freeze that moment in your memory. He is such a sweet boy! We finished up the zoo earlier than I had expected and tried to call Hubby and say he didn't have to work late on our account, unfortunately by then he had to work late on works account. Pout! So we headed back to the hotel to wash up.
And this is where the trip really goes awry! I decided to Nair my legs and thighs so I could take Boogie swimming the next few days. After about a minute my thighs started burning really badly. I wanted to scream! I decided to heck with this and started rinsing my legs. But the burning wouldn't stop. I couldn't figure it out. It hurt so much! Hubby called to say he was done with work and a co-worker was going to drop him off. I thought thank goodness because I am not putting anything on this burning right now! When he got there he looked at my legs and said ouch but we both thought it was over. Not so!
When I awoke the next morning I discovered I had bled in to the sheets- a lot! The sores that had seemed pretty bad the night before were two to three times as large now. They were about nine inches long and two to three inches wide, on my inner thigh. I bet you can imagine how it felt to walk! I just wanted to cry! Hubby decided to walk to work (since the hotel was only a mile from work) and left me to try and figure things out.
I couldn't tell Boogie I was going back on my promise to take him swimming. As it was we knew the beach was out of the question! So I glued my knees together and geisha walked to the pool. I stayed in a crouch in the pool like John Leguizamo in The Spawn for three hours! Eventually Boogie was ready to go back to the hotel room. He played some more DS and I did some research. Apparently, that junk continues to eat through your skin until you soak yourself in cool water for at least ten minutes! Seriously, why didn't they put that on the bottle? I would have soaked the night before! AGH! Keeping my promise to Boog is what kept the chemical burns from getting any bigger than they already were.
When Hubby got home that night he said I was to stay in bed and not move for the next few days to try and give myself some time to heal. He was really not happy at the size of the dang things, or the fact that I was openly bleeding! In fact, I kept openly bleeding for over three days! I seeped and pussed for three days more than that as well. We can definitely mark Nair down on the list of things to never ever buy again!
While I am mentioning having to be bedridden I should mention that my Boogie deserves a medal for those days. He helped my bandage the wounds, never complained about not being taken out and did whatever he was told. He was a perfect nursemaid and a perfect help. So many days of his life I look at him and can not imagine how I came to be so blessed!
Finally, it was Friday. We had to check out and Hubby had to work. That meant I couldn't stay in the bed all day. We bandaged me up and I put on the geisha walk again! I took Boogie out to visit his great grandfathers grave and he insisted on putting together a bouquet of flowers. It was the oddest conglomeration of flowers ever, but it was really sweet. He even cleaned the headstone placard thingy. Man is it hard to find the headstone though! If I am buried with a headstone or placard I think I want those big find me here lights put on there or something. It took us an hour and three phone calls to find the thing! We finished just in time for Boogie to play on a playground for a while before picking up Hubby and heading to my Nanny's.
Hubby was waiting for us and we made good time out to Nanny's so we had time to get ready for the wedding that night. Ahh yes, the real reason we aimed for this trip to Florida. Another wedding. This time it was my cousin, Lizzie, getting married. I hurried us all through getting ready only to discover that there was no need to hurry. The wedding was over an hour late getting started! Once it got started it went really well. Everyone got along and Matt and Lizzie were wonderful at seeing all of their guests. I could see just how much had gone into making that wedding beautiful. Lizzie, her mom (my aunt) and her sister had hand painted us all coffee mugs. They are so gorgeous!
The next day was a party designed just for the happy couple to get to spend more time with their guests. My other aunt made ribs, there was a water slide and we all played games. Of course I couldn't go on the water slide but my hubby enjoyed it. Boog on the other hand... yikes. He was so excited at first. And then he got scared. But he mustered up the courage to do it... only to have his sister come down on top of him and nearly drown him. He got the wind knocked out of him and then held under the water. It seemed like the rest of the day was spent trying to convince him to give it another try. Poor guy. The only time we weren't dealing with him and his new fear was when we were dealing with my daughter having popped her shoulder out and then back in when she fell! Man oh man! Don't get me wrong, it was a good day. We had fun. I just wish my normally low maintenance family hadn't been so high maintenance that day!
Our next day was spent at Downtown Disney. I love that place! The kids made a car at Ridemakerz. We had lunch at Wolfgang Puck's (not worth it but still enjoyed by all.) We shopped at every store we saw! Ha ha! We even had an appetizer and dessert at T-Rex. By the way, totally repeatable! It was super yummy and fun! We were disappointed by the downtown Disney 4Th of July dance party though. I seriously kept thinking, "Oh I bet this man goes home and cries in his beer over having this job!" It was just... sad! Overall it was a fun day. For the most part you are immersed in Disney without paying $82 a person to do it. Oh man though, next time I really want to ride in the big hot air balloon! That looked incredible!
Our final full day in Florida was spent at the Magic Kingdom. We had (except for Boogie who isn't old enough) all earned a day at Disney by making Easter eggs for the animals at the zoo. It took us a while to decide what park to use it on but in the end it had to be MK! And what a day! We rode virtually everything there was to ride. It was incredible! We rode somethings two to three times. No one ever accomplishes that on a summer day! I still can't believe it! We were disappointed that the parades were cancelled due to rain, but summer nightastic still went off so that was a great end to the day. Again, an overall good day!
And now came the day of dread- driving day! We really did not want to get in the car! At the same time we also didn't want to get home at 4 am! So we kept trying to leave. We would try to leave and find something else we had to do. Then we would try again and find something else. The next thing we knew it was 1 pm! Oh no! We decided we had to leave right right now! We hollered for the kids and headed to the car. The next thing I know my kiddo is walking around a corner with Boogie in her arms. She didn't want to leave Nanny's so she convinced him to go hide with her. Did I mention he was barefoot? Did I mention that she took him to hide somewhere with broken glass. Again we got to be super happy to have a nurse in the family because his foot was bleeding a lot, A LOT! Pristine cleaned it all up and bandaged it and told him to wear a sock to keep it clean. Pristine if you are reading this- he didn't take that sock off for a day and a half. Nurse's orders he kept telling me! Thanks again. After that we finally made it into the car.
I could see how tired Hubby was so I offered to drive for a while so he could get some rest. NO no No. He wouldn't allow it. He was going to drive us the whole way home. Til the sun went down and he couldn't take it anymore. Then I had to take over, myself exhausted since I am not allowed to sleep when he drives, the last 4 or 5 hours of the trip. Home has never before looked so good as it did that night. My bed has never before felt so good as it did that night. My city has never before looked as pretty as it did that night. We were home at last!
Monday, May 31, 2010
Stress Fractures
So... I told you all about the things we did in Memphis and Bristol, but I didn't tell you what the fall out from that was. I have a stress fracture in my foot. It hurts quite a bit right now, but that is totally my own fault. I should stay off of it for a number of weeks. Instead after about three days I got so stir crazy and concerned about the state of my house that I had to get up and do SOMETHING! Ugh! Unfortunately I have been doing, probably, too much because the throbbing is as powerful as it ever was. Poor foot. The really funny thing is that limping as I have been has caused me to use some muscles that are usually not utilized. So now I am limping from pain in my foot and trying to not strain those muscles. Funny, ehh?
Do you know how you get a stress fracture? Stress fractures are the result of repeated pounding. They occur most often when the muscles that are around the bone (set there to protect the bone) get fatigued and can not properly protect the bone. And lastly, poor support from your footwear can increase the likelihood of a stress fracture. So, if you take out the mention of the foot, stress fractures are caused by repeated strain exacerbated by fatigue and a lack of support.
When it is put that way, it makes me think of parts of life. I think sometimes I get stress fractures in my life. Just like my choice of foot wear tends to provide very little support, my companions often lend very little support and I am often scared of asking for more support. Add to that the sheer exhaustion that is a result of working 20 hours a day/ 7 days a week and you have a great start to a stress fracture. All that is required is something to just hit me and hit me and hit me. And for whatever reason, life is like that. There is a reason that the saying "when it rains, it pours" is so well known. When something goes bad, it goes bad in multiples. And, it seems to me, that leads you straight to that stress fracture. It might not be any one thing that really hurts. It might not even be two things that causes the pain. It is the constant pounding of disappointments, criticisms and/or rejection that causes the pain. And just like I can not tell you just what step caused the break in my foot, I can not tell you for sure what event caused any of my life stress fractures. All I can know for sure is they are there. Stress fractures heal, but they leave a weak spot, sure to rebreak... unless you find some good support and rest!
Do you know how you get a stress fracture? Stress fractures are the result of repeated pounding. They occur most often when the muscles that are around the bone (set there to protect the bone) get fatigued and can not properly protect the bone. And lastly, poor support from your footwear can increase the likelihood of a stress fracture. So, if you take out the mention of the foot, stress fractures are caused by repeated strain exacerbated by fatigue and a lack of support.
When it is put that way, it makes me think of parts of life. I think sometimes I get stress fractures in my life. Just like my choice of foot wear tends to provide very little support, my companions often lend very little support and I am often scared of asking for more support. Add to that the sheer exhaustion that is a result of working 20 hours a day/ 7 days a week and you have a great start to a stress fracture. All that is required is something to just hit me and hit me and hit me. And for whatever reason, life is like that. There is a reason that the saying "when it rains, it pours" is so well known. When something goes bad, it goes bad in multiples. And, it seems to me, that leads you straight to that stress fracture. It might not be any one thing that really hurts. It might not even be two things that causes the pain. It is the constant pounding of disappointments, criticisms and/or rejection that causes the pain. And just like I can not tell you just what step caused the break in my foot, I can not tell you for sure what event caused any of my life stress fractures. All I can know for sure is they are there. Stress fractures heal, but they leave a weak spot, sure to rebreak... unless you find some good support and rest!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
There was a man...
A long time ago I was blessed. There was a man who held my hand, a man who matched my stride. We walked side by side. I was neither leading the way nor being pulled behind. We could talk to each other. We did talk to each other. When the world got scary he would hold me close. When I was enveloped in pain, when I thought I would break he held me in his arms. He was so very safe. I felt like his arms could protect me from anything. His arms did protect me. He was my blessing. He may not have been what the other women in the world dreamed of, but he was a dream come true for me.
And I miss him. Every single day, I miss him! I miss that safety. I miss the conversations. I miss the warmth of his hands, his arms, his lips. Someday I hope he will be here with me again. There was a man and someday, I pray, he will return!
And I miss him. Every single day, I miss him! I miss that safety. I miss the conversations. I miss the warmth of his hands, his arms, his lips. Someday I hope he will be here with me again. There was a man and someday, I pray, he will return!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Bristol Bruhaha
We are home! Home from Memphis, home from the conference, home from Bristol, home from family, home from a wedding, HOME!!!! Thank the good Lord, we are home! We had a good time in Bristol but it is nice to not have to go out if we get hungry, worry about running out of clean clothes, have cleaning staff knocking at the door, share a bedroom with my little man, worry about breaking things, etc. There are so many things that change when you are living out of hotels and so I am happy to be home!
The wedding went really well. The bride and the groom both felt like nothing went wrong, so I guess that means it definitely went well. They both looked so happy to be married. I genuinely hope they stay happy to be married. They are currently on a cruise for their honeymoon so I imagine they will stay happy to be married for at least that week! Haha! That said, their priest specifically mentioned during the ceremony that they shouldn't kill each other during the honeymoon. And I don't think he meant death from exhaustion! ;D It struck me as an odd thing for him to say but I am told that it has been said before! I think I would have raspberried my officiant had he said something like that!
We saw tons of family, and no big drama occurred. I can't tell you how happy that makes me. I hate the amount of drama that can pop up around family. Anyone have a theory as to how that happens? I wish I knew. I also wish I knew how they kept the drama away...
Hubby and I managed to go on a date after the wedding. The in-laws took little man for the evening to let us have some little man free time, and the reception was pretty short so we went on a date! It is so rare an event that I really want to say it again! We went on a date! We were totally unoriginal and went to see a movie. What can I say? When you get a max of three dates a year you decide that a movie that doesn't have kids bouncing around during it is a great date! We saw "Letters to Juliet" and both enjoyed it. It was incredibly sweet and left us talking about our relationship when we walked out.
We decided we have a lot to work on (what marriage doesn't) but that the important thing is that we want to be together. When is totally focused on work 24/7 I want him to be here with me. When I have had to leave to take care of things, he wants me with him. It seems like it should go without saying but after watching a lot of marriages I can say with conviction that it is not always the case in marriages.
Anyway, I guess this post has been random enough. Maybe tomorrow I can stay a little more on track!
The wedding went really well. The bride and the groom both felt like nothing went wrong, so I guess that means it definitely went well. They both looked so happy to be married. I genuinely hope they stay happy to be married. They are currently on a cruise for their honeymoon so I imagine they will stay happy to be married for at least that week! Haha! That said, their priest specifically mentioned during the ceremony that they shouldn't kill each other during the honeymoon. And I don't think he meant death from exhaustion! ;D It struck me as an odd thing for him to say but I am told that it has been said before! I think I would have raspberried my officiant had he said something like that!
We saw tons of family, and no big drama occurred. I can't tell you how happy that makes me. I hate the amount of drama that can pop up around family. Anyone have a theory as to how that happens? I wish I knew. I also wish I knew how they kept the drama away...
Hubby and I managed to go on a date after the wedding. The in-laws took little man for the evening to let us have some little man free time, and the reception was pretty short so we went on a date! It is so rare an event that I really want to say it again! We went on a date! We were totally unoriginal and went to see a movie. What can I say? When you get a max of three dates a year you decide that a movie that doesn't have kids bouncing around during it is a great date! We saw "Letters to Juliet" and both enjoyed it. It was incredibly sweet and left us talking about our relationship when we walked out.
We decided we have a lot to work on (what marriage doesn't) but that the important thing is that we want to be together. When is totally focused on work 24/7 I want him to be here with me. When I have had to leave to take care of things, he wants me with him. It seems like it should go without saying but after watching a lot of marriages I can say with conviction that it is not always the case in marriages.
Anyway, I guess this post has been random enough. Maybe tomorrow I can stay a little more on track!
Friday, May 21, 2010
Memphis Memories- Day 3
I should have written this yesterday but we had to be out of the room by 11 am and there weren't any memories at that point! Haha! Add to that the drive time getting home and I was just too tired. So, now I am going to try to stretch my brain to 24 hours ago. Ouch!
I thought I was going to give my body more of a rest yesterday, but I was wrong. First little man and I went to see the Peabody Ducks march in. Of course, they more run and than march but it was still cute. Four ducks went whizzing by us and then, almost 20 seconds later, the last duck made her beeline for the fountain. I don't know why she was so late on the uptake but it was pretty cute. I didn't get a single picture of the duck march because there was this woman who just kept pushing me. I love my camera but it is not equipped to handle a six inch jerk every half a second! Poor camera! After that I decided that we would wait for the crowd to dissipate before I tried to get pictures of little man with the ducks. While waiting, he started in with how he was soooo thirsty and hungry. I looked around and, other than going to the steakhouse, there was only a bar. So, I obviously told him no way was he getting a drink. It was kind of funny to try to explain to him why he couldn't have a mimosa like the lady at the bar. To him it was just a glass of orange juice! Then a lady that worked there heard our discussion and convinced the bartender to give little man a drink of plain ole orange juice. I am still thankful for that! That one act of kindness made the Peabody hotel a million times nicer than any marble stairs could make it! After that we took a few pictures and I let little man pick out a tiny rubber duck to remember the experience by and we headed out the door.
Our next stop was about nine blocks away if I had been reading the map instead of trying to go off my memory. I knew I should stop and get out the map but we were being kind of chased by a schizophrenic woman chanting things about the fat woman in the blue shirt and the little boy who talks a lot. Considering the fact that she was right behind me, I was wearing a blue shirt and my little man never shuts his mouth- I was a little uncomfortable. I kept looking at the next door I could duck inside if her rantings turned to violence. And then she just decided to go elsewhere. Thank the good Lord! By that time I was all the way at the water front and a block too far that direction. We still made it, it was just closer to 12 blocks than 9! I am just thankful that little man never got frightened. He was so focused on the pyramid that he couldn't see anything else around him! It was really funny and it made me almost take him there instead of mud island but I had no idea what was going on there that day or how much it would cost!
Like I said, we did eventually make it to Mud Island. I had never been before so it was a first for both of us. I didn't spring for the full tour and I kind of wish I had. It was $4 a person, no matter the age, for a monorail ticket or $10 for the full package for those over 5 years old. At the time it didn't occur to me that that meant for $2 more than what I paid for the monorail tickets we could both have gone to the museum. Oh well, live and learn. Little man had a great time anyway. He walked through the riverbed pretending to be a huge monster and then he played in the fountain. He actually fell in the fountain too so he was totally drenched. He was so cute about it. When he stood up he looked at me and said, "Mom, now there is water in my under wear!" The space between under and wear is on purpose by the way- he says it like it is too totally different words! After playing for a while and having some nachos and popcorn for a completely unhealthy lunch he started to get a little cold. I was cold myself and I wasn't wet! So I got him a dry shirt and we made our way back to the monorail.
I figured I could get one more memory shoved in to the day, and save my feet a bit so we took a trolley part of the way back to the hotel. Little man was so excited about it- and it cost me a whopping $1! Crazy, eh? We got back to the hotel an hour earlier than I thought would be OK for the hubby but he was let out earlier than I thought he would be. It worked out great! We loaded up and headed home to rest. Well, we sort of get to rest. We will be leaving for a wedding in about an hour and half... We will have been home for 20 hours!
I thought I was going to give my body more of a rest yesterday, but I was wrong. First little man and I went to see the Peabody Ducks march in. Of course, they more run and than march but it was still cute. Four ducks went whizzing by us and then, almost 20 seconds later, the last duck made her beeline for the fountain. I don't know why she was so late on the uptake but it was pretty cute. I didn't get a single picture of the duck march because there was this woman who just kept pushing me. I love my camera but it is not equipped to handle a six inch jerk every half a second! Poor camera! After that I decided that we would wait for the crowd to dissipate before I tried to get pictures of little man with the ducks. While waiting, he started in with how he was soooo thirsty and hungry. I looked around and, other than going to the steakhouse, there was only a bar. So, I obviously told him no way was he getting a drink. It was kind of funny to try to explain to him why he couldn't have a mimosa like the lady at the bar. To him it was just a glass of orange juice! Then a lady that worked there heard our discussion and convinced the bartender to give little man a drink of plain ole orange juice. I am still thankful for that! That one act of kindness made the Peabody hotel a million times nicer than any marble stairs could make it! After that we took a few pictures and I let little man pick out a tiny rubber duck to remember the experience by and we headed out the door.
Our next stop was about nine blocks away if I had been reading the map instead of trying to go off my memory. I knew I should stop and get out the map but we were being kind of chased by a schizophrenic woman chanting things about the fat woman in the blue shirt and the little boy who talks a lot. Considering the fact that she was right behind me, I was wearing a blue shirt and my little man never shuts his mouth- I was a little uncomfortable. I kept looking at the next door I could duck inside if her rantings turned to violence. And then she just decided to go elsewhere. Thank the good Lord! By that time I was all the way at the water front and a block too far that direction. We still made it, it was just closer to 12 blocks than 9! I am just thankful that little man never got frightened. He was so focused on the pyramid that he couldn't see anything else around him! It was really funny and it made me almost take him there instead of mud island but I had no idea what was going on there that day or how much it would cost!
Like I said, we did eventually make it to Mud Island. I had never been before so it was a first for both of us. I didn't spring for the full tour and I kind of wish I had. It was $4 a person, no matter the age, for a monorail ticket or $10 for the full package for those over 5 years old. At the time it didn't occur to me that that meant for $2 more than what I paid for the monorail tickets we could both have gone to the museum. Oh well, live and learn. Little man had a great time anyway. He walked through the riverbed pretending to be a huge monster and then he played in the fountain. He actually fell in the fountain too so he was totally drenched. He was so cute about it. When he stood up he looked at me and said, "Mom, now there is water in my under wear!" The space between under and wear is on purpose by the way- he says it like it is too totally different words! After playing for a while and having some nachos and popcorn for a completely unhealthy lunch he started to get a little cold. I was cold myself and I wasn't wet! So I got him a dry shirt and we made our way back to the monorail.
I figured I could get one more memory shoved in to the day, and save my feet a bit so we took a trolley part of the way back to the hotel. Little man was so excited about it- and it cost me a whopping $1! Crazy, eh? We got back to the hotel an hour earlier than I thought would be OK for the hubby but he was let out earlier than I thought he would be. It worked out great! We loaded up and headed home to rest. Well, we sort of get to rest. We will be leaving for a wedding in about an hour and half... We will have been home for 20 hours!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Memphis Memories- Day 2
Day 2 in the state's largest city has been an adventure. I, once again, got lost on the way to the zoo. I have been to the Memphis zoo something like 5 times. Once I got so lost that I got there at closing time, when my aim had been about an hour after opening. Another time I was lost for three hours trying to get there. I have to say, in my defense, that it is always a case of missing signs. Today was no different. This time the sign on the interstate was there but the signs to turn on the side roads was not. I guess that means that I should pat myself on the back for getting there within an hour.
The zoo is so much bigger than it was the last time I went. They have opened an amazing new area called Tetons trail. Just a note to the other parents out there- if you come to the zoo now be sure to bring a change of clothes for the kids as they have an awful lot of places for water play now. There is a geyser type water fountain that little man just adored! The grisly bear area is so wonderful. There are three different areas to see the bears. They were playing with each other and actually running in to the glass separator. The Memphis zoo has a ton of animals and it was really a great zoo. There are a few areas that could improve. I know I am spoiled by the Nashville zoo's playground but the one here in Memphis was rather pathetic. Additionally, there were at least ten schools that were there today and the zoo still did not open up it's ride area. That kind of threw me for a loop. They also chose to not open a some of their restaurants and the ones that were open were busy enough that I waited in a twenty minute line to place my order. My last negative thoughts concern the decorations. Some areas were really over decorated. Some areas were a a vast expanse of nothing. I would love to see a nice happy medium. I have a feeling that the expanses are there because they plan to open three or four new "lands" it just would have been nice to not have such a long walk with nothing to look at! Overall, I have to say it was a really nice zoo.
It only took me 12 minutes to get back to the hotel. I am pretty good at getting where I am going once I know just where I am going! We ended up picking up dinner from BK to save a little dough but I was happy to discover that the workers had genuine Tennessee friendliness! Overall, it was a very lovely day!
The zoo is so much bigger than it was the last time I went. They have opened an amazing new area called Tetons trail. Just a note to the other parents out there- if you come to the zoo now be sure to bring a change of clothes for the kids as they have an awful lot of places for water play now. There is a geyser type water fountain that little man just adored! The grisly bear area is so wonderful. There are three different areas to see the bears. They were playing with each other and actually running in to the glass separator. The Memphis zoo has a ton of animals and it was really a great zoo. There are a few areas that could improve. I know I am spoiled by the Nashville zoo's playground but the one here in Memphis was rather pathetic. Additionally, there were at least ten schools that were there today and the zoo still did not open up it's ride area. That kind of threw me for a loop. They also chose to not open a some of their restaurants and the ones that were open were busy enough that I waited in a twenty minute line to place my order. My last negative thoughts concern the decorations. Some areas were really over decorated. Some areas were a a vast expanse of nothing. I would love to see a nice happy medium. I have a feeling that the expanses are there because they plan to open three or four new "lands" it just would have been nice to not have such a long walk with nothing to look at! Overall, I have to say it was a really nice zoo.
It only took me 12 minutes to get back to the hotel. I am pretty good at getting where I am going once I know just where I am going! We ended up picking up dinner from BK to save a little dough but I was happy to discover that the workers had genuine Tennessee friendliness! Overall, it was a very lovely day!
Memphis Memories Day 1
We have ventured out to Memphis for a few days. Hubby has a conference to go to so little man and I tagged along to utilize his hotel room. We only got here a few hours ago but I already have noticed so many things!
Our Hotel- First I should say it is nice. The bed in comfy, the soap doesn't dry me out and the TV is HD. But then... well, the ceiling is gross as are the carpets, the toilet runs all the time and the pool is closed. They are currently renovating so the furniture doesn't go together at all. I am not talking about matching, but about general style. I have to admit I am just happy to feel kind of safe here because....
Memphis- is just as weird and scary as I remember it. One minute you are in an area with a seminary and mansions and the next you can't see any grass through the trash. The roads are completely crazy! The interstate has an exit to stay on the interstate.... umm what? Wouldn't the exit be for the other roads? At one point they had blue and purple neon lights under the overpass and you couldn't tell where there was a road at all. Scary!
Kooki Canuck- The sandwhich I split with little man was pretty good. The fries were a big blob of tastelessness. And the service stunk. It took forever to get a table with two groups of 20 getting seated before my group of two. While I understand the one group had a reservation they only had a reservation for 15 and they had to find an extra table to make it 20. Guess whose table that was? It then took 45 minutes for a single sandwhich to come out. It took 10 minutes for little man to get his drink while mine came after about 5 minutes. I felt bad for him. :( My total was $9.06 so I put out $20.06 and when the waiter came around he looked at me expectantly and asked if I wanted any change. Umm yeah- of course I want change! I am not going to tip you 110%! I do have to say that the animal heads on the wall made for some really funny conversations with little man! It was the best part of the meal!
Tomorrow we are planning to hit the zoo. We are going to use our home zoo memebership to get in at a reduced rate. Little man is really looking forward to the pandas and I can't wait to see his face when he sees the komodo dragons. I am praying for a really great day. I am expecting a really great day! I'll let you know how it goes!
Our Hotel- First I should say it is nice. The bed in comfy, the soap doesn't dry me out and the TV is HD. But then... well, the ceiling is gross as are the carpets, the toilet runs all the time and the pool is closed. They are currently renovating so the furniture doesn't go together at all. I am not talking about matching, but about general style. I have to admit I am just happy to feel kind of safe here because....
Memphis- is just as weird and scary as I remember it. One minute you are in an area with a seminary and mansions and the next you can't see any grass through the trash. The roads are completely crazy! The interstate has an exit to stay on the interstate.... umm what? Wouldn't the exit be for the other roads? At one point they had blue and purple neon lights under the overpass and you couldn't tell where there was a road at all. Scary!
Kooki Canuck- The sandwhich I split with little man was pretty good. The fries were a big blob of tastelessness. And the service stunk. It took forever to get a table with two groups of 20 getting seated before my group of two. While I understand the one group had a reservation they only had a reservation for 15 and they had to find an extra table to make it 20. Guess whose table that was? It then took 45 minutes for a single sandwhich to come out. It took 10 minutes for little man to get his drink while mine came after about 5 minutes. I felt bad for him. :( My total was $9.06 so I put out $20.06 and when the waiter came around he looked at me expectantly and asked if I wanted any change. Umm yeah- of course I want change! I am not going to tip you 110%! I do have to say that the animal heads on the wall made for some really funny conversations with little man! It was the best part of the meal!
Tomorrow we are planning to hit the zoo. We are going to use our home zoo memebership to get in at a reduced rate. Little man is really looking forward to the pandas and I can't wait to see his face when he sees the komodo dragons. I am praying for a really great day. I am expecting a really great day! I'll let you know how it goes!
Saturday, May 15, 2010
I love my town...
Ahhh- I am home. I wasn't too far away, but it was a whole other world attitude wise. I live in one of the largest cities in my state. And yet, my city (because it is now my city!) prides itself in maintaining it's small town attitude. My town is friendly. My town is helpful. My town takes care of itself and it's neighbors. We might be a larger area, but we don't feel the need to act like one.
I was actually in a smaller town tonight than my town, and it felt as cold as the largest city I have ever been to. No one cared about anyone else. In fact, there was rudeness all around. I was jostled and shoved all over the place. What kind of idiot tries to push around a fat woman I don't know, but the fact that I could squish them didn't stop them! I ended up so frustrated with this one woman that I really wanted to assume a sumo wrestler pose and make her flat like a pancake (or as my little guy says, a pancake bug!) Can't you just see me- stomp, stomp, stomp.... you not block whole aisle just to be mean. Scowl, growl and squint.... pound, pound, pound.... oh she left spot on ground. Oh well!
I can joke about people's rudeness all day long but, in the end, it does one thing for me. It reminds me how much I love my town!
I was actually in a smaller town tonight than my town, and it felt as cold as the largest city I have ever been to. No one cared about anyone else. In fact, there was rudeness all around. I was jostled and shoved all over the place. What kind of idiot tries to push around a fat woman I don't know, but the fact that I could squish them didn't stop them! I ended up so frustrated with this one woman that I really wanted to assume a sumo wrestler pose and make her flat like a pancake (or as my little guy says, a pancake bug!) Can't you just see me- stomp, stomp, stomp.... you not block whole aisle just to be mean. Scowl, growl and squint.... pound, pound, pound.... oh she left spot on ground. Oh well!
I can joke about people's rudeness all day long but, in the end, it does one thing for me. It reminds me how much I love my town!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Ode to Pinky!
Today we lost a dear pet. She had already lived twice her life expectancy and yet, we all feel she died to soon. She was patient, gentle and forgiving. She was a better pet than I ever expected. She was kind to Jacob, despite all the horrible things he did to her (unintentionally, of course) and even handled life without her best friend for quite a while. I never thought I would care about her the way I do, after all she was just a mouse.
Yes, you read that right. I am writing this about a mouse. The kind of creature that people set out a multitude of traps and poisons for. The kind of creature that makes people scream for no reason. Even in a cage she scared people. People would refuse to check on our cats when we went on vacation if Pinky was in the house. They would cringe at the sight of her, and yet, I stand by what I said before. Pinky was amazing.
Good bye sweet girl. We all miss you!
Yes, you read that right. I am writing this about a mouse. The kind of creature that people set out a multitude of traps and poisons for. The kind of creature that makes people scream for no reason. Even in a cage she scared people. People would refuse to check on our cats when we went on vacation if Pinky was in the house. They would cringe at the sight of her, and yet, I stand by what I said before. Pinky was amazing.
Good bye sweet girl. We all miss you!
Monday, May 10, 2010
It's been forever!
OOops! It has been forever and a day since I last posted though I have been writing them in my head. It seems like a post occurs to me a million times a day, but when my little guy has gone to sleep and I can finally post without him in my ear I suddenly have my husband in my ear. Anyway, I am sure that some of the posts will still be written over the next few days but the post I want to write today must be written today or wait for a year. I choose today! It means I will be postponing posts about floods, family, car trips, pets and customer service.
Let me start by painting a picture for you. It starts with a stressed out mother of three kids. She has a husband but really, it is mom that makes the family function. There is only one day a year that people expect anyone to make ye ole mom feel appreciated. Husband and kids know that a great way to help mom on that day would be to keep her from having to cook for them. But Dad doesn't cook and the kids are too young.... hmmm, where should we take mom? Then the answer comes to them on the radio- Red Robin! Ahh yes, Red Robin what man and his kids would turn down a burger? Sounds great! But wait, Dad thinks, what if Mom doesn't want a burger for her special day? No problem because the radio just mentioned that Mom should be getting a salad! Woohoo! Stressed out Mom will be so happy! She won't feel like Dad and kids are calling her fat when she is told to get a salad while everyone else gets a burger and fries. No way! But just in case, Dad thinks, maybe he should have a back up plan. But he still can't figure out what that back up should be- no worries! The answer just arrived in Dad's inbox! Chuck E Cheese! Yes! That is just what Mom would love! She would just be overjoyed to get to go somewhere where half the other parents don't watch their kids at all. Mom needs more yelling, more screaming and more worries about her children breaking things. Ahhh... what a dream! What a dream!
Sounds like horrible things to say or do to Mom on that one precious day, doesn't it? And yet, I really did hear an ad just like that and get an email advocating Chuck E Cheese for Mother's day! All I could do was laugh. I mean really, some restaurants should just accept that they are not going to have increased attendance for Mother's Day and some just need to figure out that if Mom wants a salad she will pick one. That ad did nothing more than increase Dad's chances of inserting his foot in his mouth when trying to be sweet. Poor guy! I hope that no man ended up in trouble for suggesting a salad to his darling wife at a burger joint! My prayer is that the mother's of the world felt genuinely appreciated today, and perhaps can feel appreciated in the days to come!
Let me start by painting a picture for you. It starts with a stressed out mother of three kids. She has a husband but really, it is mom that makes the family function. There is only one day a year that people expect anyone to make ye ole mom feel appreciated. Husband and kids know that a great way to help mom on that day would be to keep her from having to cook for them. But Dad doesn't cook and the kids are too young.... hmmm, where should we take mom? Then the answer comes to them on the radio- Red Robin! Ahh yes, Red Robin what man and his kids would turn down a burger? Sounds great! But wait, Dad thinks, what if Mom doesn't want a burger for her special day? No problem because the radio just mentioned that Mom should be getting a salad! Woohoo! Stressed out Mom will be so happy! She won't feel like Dad and kids are calling her fat when she is told to get a salad while everyone else gets a burger and fries. No way! But just in case, Dad thinks, maybe he should have a back up plan. But he still can't figure out what that back up should be- no worries! The answer just arrived in Dad's inbox! Chuck E Cheese! Yes! That is just what Mom would love! She would just be overjoyed to get to go somewhere where half the other parents don't watch their kids at all. Mom needs more yelling, more screaming and more worries about her children breaking things. Ahhh... what a dream! What a dream!
Sounds like horrible things to say or do to Mom on that one precious day, doesn't it? And yet, I really did hear an ad just like that and get an email advocating Chuck E Cheese for Mother's day! All I could do was laugh. I mean really, some restaurants should just accept that they are not going to have increased attendance for Mother's Day and some just need to figure out that if Mom wants a salad she will pick one. That ad did nothing more than increase Dad's chances of inserting his foot in his mouth when trying to be sweet. Poor guy! I hope that no man ended up in trouble for suggesting a salad to his darling wife at a burger joint! My prayer is that the mother's of the world felt genuinely appreciated today, and perhaps can feel appreciated in the days to come!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Friends are friends forever?
I know you have heard that song before, at least you have if you are over the age of 25. Friends are friends forever the song says, the question mark is something I added. I added it because I really do question that. I wish I could say that I have had the same friends forever, but I most certainly have not. Every time I think I have found one of those forever friends they seem to vacate as soon as they are done getting what they need for me.
So far in my life I have found one exception to the rule. We seem to go through catastrophes in turns and we are there for each other. I really wish we were able to live closer together but the visitation situations with our kids make that impossible. And I think I may have found TWO more friends like that too. One friend is going through the same things I am, listens to me and I listen to her and our kids are great together. The other, well, we just seem to click around each other.
Steel Magnolias was on TV last night. For whatever reason that movie always comes on when I need it to- and those are the only times I have watched it! It even came on at 6 am the day I had my son and needed a way to pass the time. What movie comes on at 6 am? Last night's showing really made me think of friends. That seems obvious because it really is a girlfriend story but for me, that had never really sunk in. Last night it did. And I started getting a little sad because I automatically think I don't have friends like that. But then I really thought about it. I realized I am probably the M'Lynn or even Truvy. Then I definitely have two Clairee's and a Truvy. I guess that means I still need to take applications for a Ouiser and a -oh what is Daryl Hannah's characters name? but otherwise I have the best group of friends I have ever had right now. I wished we could see each other as much as the women in the movie did, but who in real life really can?
Now, are friends friends forever? I don't know- ask me in 30 years!
So far in my life I have found one exception to the rule. We seem to go through catastrophes in turns and we are there for each other. I really wish we were able to live closer together but the visitation situations with our kids make that impossible. And I think I may have found TWO more friends like that too. One friend is going through the same things I am, listens to me and I listen to her and our kids are great together. The other, well, we just seem to click around each other.
Steel Magnolias was on TV last night. For whatever reason that movie always comes on when I need it to- and those are the only times I have watched it! It even came on at 6 am the day I had my son and needed a way to pass the time. What movie comes on at 6 am? Last night's showing really made me think of friends. That seems obvious because it really is a girlfriend story but for me, that had never really sunk in. Last night it did. And I started getting a little sad because I automatically think I don't have friends like that. But then I really thought about it. I realized I am probably the M'Lynn or even Truvy. Then I definitely have two Clairee's and a Truvy. I guess that means I still need to take applications for a Ouiser and a -oh what is Daryl Hannah's characters name? but otherwise I have the best group of friends I have ever had right now. I wished we could see each other as much as the women in the movie did, but who in real life really can?
Now, are friends friends forever? I don't know- ask me in 30 years!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
The Boogie Man!
My Boogie Man, aka my son, is home after being gone for about three days. He has been home for less than 24 hours and still he has said/done things so great that I have to immortalize them!
1. +2+2+2 I love you (he had told me loved me to the moon and back 48 times and I said I love him that much +2- this was his response. It sounded so sweet coming out of 4 year old lips!)
2. This morning, no matter how much I tell him someone else is making us lunch today, he keeps telling me if it is going to be good it has to be made by me.
3. This morning he came in and climbed up to hug me. As we were laying there snuggling, one of our kittes walked up and laid on his back. So it was me, Boogie, and the kitty. It was so sweet and utterly adorable.
4. He is doing this little chant right now, because he found out that Daddy is going with us today as opposed to working, that is complete joy. You can just hear the happiness coming out of him.
5. Last night, while watching a show on TV, he treated me like a jungle gym. He pulled a blanket up over his head and crawled all over me. Then I noticed he had slowed down, almost totally stopped. I listened in close and discovered that he was snoring! Just the dark had put him out!
6. I woke him up after enjoying that for about an hour and told him to go to bed. He said something incomprehensible and then obeyed in his sleep. It warmed my aching heart.
There are so many more to include but I am so pressed for time that they are escaping me. I hope I remember more of them for tonight. For now, suffice it to say, that my Boogie is being the sweetest boy EVER! I love it!
1. +2+2+2 I love you (he had told me loved me to the moon and back 48 times and I said I love him that much +2- this was his response. It sounded so sweet coming out of 4 year old lips!)
2. This morning, no matter how much I tell him someone else is making us lunch today, he keeps telling me if it is going to be good it has to be made by me.
3. This morning he came in and climbed up to hug me. As we were laying there snuggling, one of our kittes walked up and laid on his back. So it was me, Boogie, and the kitty. It was so sweet and utterly adorable.
4. He is doing this little chant right now, because he found out that Daddy is going with us today as opposed to working, that is complete joy. You can just hear the happiness coming out of him.
5. Last night, while watching a show on TV, he treated me like a jungle gym. He pulled a blanket up over his head and crawled all over me. Then I noticed he had slowed down, almost totally stopped. I listened in close and discovered that he was snoring! Just the dark had put him out!
6. I woke him up after enjoying that for about an hour and told him to go to bed. He said something incomprehensible and then obeyed in his sleep. It warmed my aching heart.
There are so many more to include but I am so pressed for time that they are escaping me. I hope I remember more of them for tonight. For now, suffice it to say, that my Boogie is being the sweetest boy EVER! I love it!
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Where did the chimney come from? I don't have a fireplace!
I haven't posted a blog in a few days. The last few nights I have thought, as I laid down, that I should have blogged. And then I would convince myself that I didn't need to blog because I don't really have any readers. If I had been totally honest with myself I would have just told myself that I might regret what I would have said over the last few days. You see, my life blew up this week. I don't mean it blew up in size, I mean it blew up from massive amounts of explosives. And it blew up when I had no warning.
Those life blow ups seem to come in different levels. They remind me of natural disasters. There are hurricane types of blow ups. Those are the ones that you see coming for weeks, but are unable to stop. You could run and avoid some of the pain, but doing that means you leave behind your life. These blow ups are super painful and the fact that you saw them coming never fully prepares you for what you go through. The warning is great though because you did have time to circle the wagons, so to speak. Then there are the tornado blow ups. You have a little bit of alert that it is on it's way but it is never enough to do much more than throw your arms up over your head. You might be able to grab a bit of what will help you the most but other than that, watch out! Finally, you have earthquake blow ups. They hit with no warning whatsoever. They hit you where and when you least expect. You are just walking down the street, thinking the world is bright and shiny when- boom, a chimney drops on your head. Sometimes these blow ups don't look so big to the outside world, but the fact that you had no chance to prepare put a magnifier on your feelings. (For anyone wondering about the chimney thing let me explain. I lived in Charleston in my childhood which is, believe it or not, on a fault line. It isn't very active but a long time ago, according to my elemenary teacher, when it shifted and an earthquake occured everyone ran outside. And then they died from thier chimneys falling on their heads.)
This weeks blowup was an earthquake. It shook me to the core. And I felt like I had no where to turn to handle all the pain from that blasted falling chimney. I tried to turn to my friends and family. And the family turned on me. They were more concerned with burying the chimney than they were in building a new chimney or fixing my head wound. I suppose we all have our priorities but, to me, this seems so utterly stupid a way to prioritize that I know I can not involve those people in my life anymore. I mean, who wants people in their lives who would be more concerned about the possible puke involved than in administering the Heimlich? Just sayin'...
I am still shaken. I am shaken to my core. But I am finding out that the fault line I was living on is trying to close. The fault line is trying to become more stable. And so I will keep my house built upon this line. I will put my faith in God's ability to hold that fault together. And I will pray every day that next time my life blows up, it reminds me more of a gentle drizzle.
Those life blow ups seem to come in different levels. They remind me of natural disasters. There are hurricane types of blow ups. Those are the ones that you see coming for weeks, but are unable to stop. You could run and avoid some of the pain, but doing that means you leave behind your life. These blow ups are super painful and the fact that you saw them coming never fully prepares you for what you go through. The warning is great though because you did have time to circle the wagons, so to speak. Then there are the tornado blow ups. You have a little bit of alert that it is on it's way but it is never enough to do much more than throw your arms up over your head. You might be able to grab a bit of what will help you the most but other than that, watch out! Finally, you have earthquake blow ups. They hit with no warning whatsoever. They hit you where and when you least expect. You are just walking down the street, thinking the world is bright and shiny when- boom, a chimney drops on your head. Sometimes these blow ups don't look so big to the outside world, but the fact that you had no chance to prepare put a magnifier on your feelings. (For anyone wondering about the chimney thing let me explain. I lived in Charleston in my childhood which is, believe it or not, on a fault line. It isn't very active but a long time ago, according to my elemenary teacher, when it shifted and an earthquake occured everyone ran outside. And then they died from thier chimneys falling on their heads.)
This weeks blowup was an earthquake. It shook me to the core. And I felt like I had no where to turn to handle all the pain from that blasted falling chimney. I tried to turn to my friends and family. And the family turned on me. They were more concerned with burying the chimney than they were in building a new chimney or fixing my head wound. I suppose we all have our priorities but, to me, this seems so utterly stupid a way to prioritize that I know I can not involve those people in my life anymore. I mean, who wants people in their lives who would be more concerned about the possible puke involved than in administering the Heimlich? Just sayin'...
I am still shaken. I am shaken to my core. But I am finding out that the fault line I was living on is trying to close. The fault line is trying to become more stable. And so I will keep my house built upon this line. I will put my faith in God's ability to hold that fault together. And I will pray every day that next time my life blows up, it reminds me more of a gentle drizzle.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Don't go breakin' my heart
Today started out like many other days for me. I did some dishes. I worked on some school lessons with my son. I had lunch. I picked up- and then I discovered that I had been lied to again. I hate being lied to more than just about anything else. And I had been lied to horribly and in a heart breaking way. When I confronted the offender the lies continued until the evidence showed that the truth had to come out. Imagine, continuing to lie when you know you are getting busted. And then the apologies started. "I'm so sorry" uttered over and over again. And then the ever present it's all your fault type of talk. But you know what? It wasn't my fault. I didn't do anything to make that lie escape those lips. In fact, I tend to forgive much more than I should and so there was no way a lie was required to cover up that weakness.
I am struggling now. I am struggling with wondering what to do about that. How many times do you place yourself in a position to be hurt? When Jesus was asked how many times you should forgive me said something along the lines of 70 times 7. Really he was just saying that we should forgive and forgive and then when we can't forgive anymore we forgive again. And so I will. I will forgive the lies I discovered today. But... I have to draw a line with staying in the situation to be lied to and hurt again.
And I have to say I am who I am. I can not be any better a person than I am today for the sake of making this one person not lie to me. Does that make sense? I can't struggle and fight every day to be the ideal just so that perhaps they will value me enough to not lie to me. I just can't. And so, if being less than ideal isn't good enough- well let me know. Just please- don't go breakin' my heart!
I am struggling now. I am struggling with wondering what to do about that. How many times do you place yourself in a position to be hurt? When Jesus was asked how many times you should forgive me said something along the lines of 70 times 7. Really he was just saying that we should forgive and forgive and then when we can't forgive anymore we forgive again. And so I will. I will forgive the lies I discovered today. But... I have to draw a line with staying in the situation to be lied to and hurt again.
And I have to say I am who I am. I can not be any better a person than I am today for the sake of making this one person not lie to me. Does that make sense? I can't struggle and fight every day to be the ideal just so that perhaps they will value me enough to not lie to me. I just can't. And so, if being less than ideal isn't good enough- well let me know. Just please- don't go breakin' my heart!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
I'm dreaming of Europe
Little People, Big World has taken to the rails, in Europe. If I had never watched the show before, I would now, just to see a little bit of the amazing things there are to see there. I am pretty well assured of little chance of going myself. Every penny we have goes towards our kids, and I really wouldn't have it any other way. But when I dream, when those moments of selfishness lead me astray, I dream of Europe. I don't want to live there, I just want to visit for a season. No really, a whole season. I want to see all of the tourist things there are to see, and all of the things other people don't think of. I want to actually see everything I studied in Art History when we covered Europe. I want to try all the different foods. And I don't want to do it in a hurry. I want to linger over each experience.
But alas, not only will that never happen, but even if I were to get to go to Europe I feel assured that I would never get to linger over things. Tonight's episodes really reminded me that lingering can not be done with a child in tow- and the kid that was the problem in the episode is somewhere around 12! My son is 4- no way would he want to climb the stairs to the top of the Duomo, or consider the works of the Louvre. So I stick with watching shows of other people enjoying all that foreign travel has to offer. Me, I will just stick to dreaming and spending my money of snapshots instead of passport pictures.
Ciao!
But alas, not only will that never happen, but even if I were to get to go to Europe I feel assured that I would never get to linger over things. Tonight's episodes really reminded me that lingering can not be done with a child in tow- and the kid that was the problem in the episode is somewhere around 12! My son is 4- no way would he want to climb the stairs to the top of the Duomo, or consider the works of the Louvre. So I stick with watching shows of other people enjoying all that foreign travel has to offer. Me, I will just stick to dreaming and spending my money of snapshots instead of passport pictures.
Ciao!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Eggshells
Ahh- so I had a big long post all written out and then I read it. It was fine. It said exactly what I meant for it to say. But I had to worry that it would deeply offend someone in my life, despite it not being about that person at all. And because I am sick today, and just don't feel like possibly dealing with the hysterics, I deleted all that I had written. Now really, why did I have to do that? I am all for being gentle with people when gentility is warranted, but why should any of us have to avoid entire areas of discussion just because someone else might read them all wrong? It just feels crazy!
I don't have the energy to come up with a new subject and write out all my feelings about said subject. And, since I have been in bed all day, I don't have much of anything to report about my day. So I suppose I will end this by saying I love Nyquil and my doting husband!
I don't have the energy to come up with a new subject and write out all my feelings about said subject. And, since I have been in bed all day, I don't have much of anything to report about my day. So I suppose I will end this by saying I love Nyquil and my doting husband!
Roller Coasters
I love roller coasters. They are thrilling, extreme. One minute you are steadily climbing up a ramp, securely fastened in to your seat and the next minute you are diving, nay hurtling down through the air with you heart in your throat. Just when you can see the bottom your head gets thrown to one side or the other as the seemingly safe car jerks you around a wicked curve. You straighten up and prepare for the loops you can see coming up but don't realize there is an unexpected dip before you get to that loop and that dip makes you unprepared for the loop. Just when you have your bearings together and feel like you hope the crazy ride won't end, it ends. And then you have to wait in line for it to start all over again.
But what if I hated roller coasters? What if I were dragged along for each ride? What if the wait in line were filled with dread instead of excitement? What if I could never get used to the jerks and the dips and the loops? You often hear people compare a bad day to riding a roller coaster. For someone like me, someone who loves riding roller coasters, that doesn't make very much sense. But being a parent and a wife, boy have I figured it out. I no longer make the decision as to what ride I get on. I am drug along to whatever ride my loves have in store for me. They usually choose what my day will entail. Sometimes it is a great ride. Sometimes every minute just gets better and better. Sometimes it is a death spiral of a ride, a ride I don't want to go on. But I can't kick and scream. I can't demand they allow me off that ride. When they take me along the dips of bad attitude, the loops of whining and the jerks of anger, I have to just hold on tight and hope the next ride is better. Whenever I loose that wisp of hope, I, myself, cause some pretty nasty bits of track for my loved ones. And I hate doing that more than I hate those bad rides.
Now that I have beat that metaphor to death let me be blunt. All of this is foremost in my mind because today was one of those days I don't really want to repeat. It had it's good moments and it's bad moments... but most of all, it switched between the two with lightning speed. I think I may have a little emotional whiplash. And you know what? I really, really need to remember that tomorrow can be different from today. Hopefully, it will be. Hopefully, it will be one of those days where I worry no day can ever be so great again. Hopefully...
But what if I hated roller coasters? What if I were dragged along for each ride? What if the wait in line were filled with dread instead of excitement? What if I could never get used to the jerks and the dips and the loops? You often hear people compare a bad day to riding a roller coaster. For someone like me, someone who loves riding roller coasters, that doesn't make very much sense. But being a parent and a wife, boy have I figured it out. I no longer make the decision as to what ride I get on. I am drug along to whatever ride my loves have in store for me. They usually choose what my day will entail. Sometimes it is a great ride. Sometimes every minute just gets better and better. Sometimes it is a death spiral of a ride, a ride I don't want to go on. But I can't kick and scream. I can't demand they allow me off that ride. When they take me along the dips of bad attitude, the loops of whining and the jerks of anger, I have to just hold on tight and hope the next ride is better. Whenever I loose that wisp of hope, I, myself, cause some pretty nasty bits of track for my loved ones. And I hate doing that more than I hate those bad rides.
Now that I have beat that metaphor to death let me be blunt. All of this is foremost in my mind because today was one of those days I don't really want to repeat. It had it's good moments and it's bad moments... but most of all, it switched between the two with lightning speed. I think I may have a little emotional whiplash. And you know what? I really, really need to remember that tomorrow can be different from today. Hopefully, it will be. Hopefully, it will be one of those days where I worry no day can ever be so great again. Hopefully...
Saturday, April 17, 2010
What is too personal?
Anyone here a fan of House? Did you see that episode where the patient blogs about everything in her life? I was one of those few people who actually said, "Good for you, girl! Don't hide things!" but then most people don't seem to agree. Most people hide behind a large mask. They run around sporting facades for the world.
You know the best part about their masks and facades? It is that they suddenly get uncomfortable when they run across someone like me who doesn't hide behind a mask. They don't know what to do about a person who is honest and upfront. How do you respond to someone who actually answers when you ask, "how are you?" I mean yikes- I can see the surprise on people's face when I answer that with something concrete. Why are we trained to answer, "fine" when we aren't? Honestly, how many days are just fine? Most of the time I am so much more than fine. I am great, frustrated, outstanding, blessed, worried, hurting, lonely or even tired. Rarely am I just fine. What a boring answer. But, oh goodness, the panic at an answer other than fine. Answering something other than fine encourages an actual conversation. It might mean you could get to know someone. Ahhhh- scary!
Obviously, I know exactly how I feel about glossing over things in real life. But now I have entered a new realm- blogging. Should my thoughts be held more tightly since they will be available to any person with a computer or even access to an Internet cafe? Should I be even more blatant about things since it is in the relative anonymity of the web? Can I just apply the same rules as in life? If you watched that episode of House you know that eventually it came down to the girls feces and that was one thing she didn't blog about. Even she had a line. By the way, I can definitely understand that line!
So tell me, dear friends, what is too personal?
You know the best part about their masks and facades? It is that they suddenly get uncomfortable when they run across someone like me who doesn't hide behind a mask. They don't know what to do about a person who is honest and upfront. How do you respond to someone who actually answers when you ask, "how are you?" I mean yikes- I can see the surprise on people's face when I answer that with something concrete. Why are we trained to answer, "fine" when we aren't? Honestly, how many days are just fine? Most of the time I am so much more than fine. I am great, frustrated, outstanding, blessed, worried, hurting, lonely or even tired. Rarely am I just fine. What a boring answer. But, oh goodness, the panic at an answer other than fine. Answering something other than fine encourages an actual conversation. It might mean you could get to know someone. Ahhhh- scary!
Obviously, I know exactly how I feel about glossing over things in real life. But now I have entered a new realm- blogging. Should my thoughts be held more tightly since they will be available to any person with a computer or even access to an Internet cafe? Should I be even more blatant about things since it is in the relative anonymity of the web? Can I just apply the same rules as in life? If you watched that episode of House you know that eventually it came down to the girls feces and that was one thing she didn't blog about. Even she had a line. By the way, I can definitely understand that line!
So tell me, dear friends, what is too personal?
Friday, April 16, 2010
Ohhhh- it's my first time!
At this ripe old age, there aren't many times I get to say that anymore! I mean, really, I am pushing 30 now. I am caught between young and old, between inexperienced and wise. Consequently, when I find something I have never really done before, well, it sort of thrills me. Blogging may not be the biggest thing ever, but it is something.
Now, why on Earth am I starting a blog? I don't have any incredible things going on in my life right this minute. I have a dear friend who has a blog that talks about her adoption journey (here shortly I will get to make that plural!) I follow a blog about a girl who is stepping out in faith in Africa. Boy, is she stepping out. She is 20 with 14 girls who now call her mommy! I know of blogs about struggles with cancer or AIDS. None of those things apply to me. My life is really very boring compared to all those people.
You know what isn't boring? My brain! When I was a kid I was diagnosed as A.D.D. and my brain hasn't slowed down one iota in old age! I am a wisenheimer (whoa- I had to pull out an archaic word to avoid a PG-13 rating!) who noticed really odd things. I talk to strangers and tend to get them to really talk back!
Really, the point of this is for people to get to know my family, to get to know me. My family all lives rather far away and they always have. Now seems as good as time as any for them to experience my days. And, hey, if I run into a few old friends along the way- all the better!
Now, why on Earth am I starting a blog? I don't have any incredible things going on in my life right this minute. I have a dear friend who has a blog that talks about her adoption journey (here shortly I will get to make that plural!) I follow a blog about a girl who is stepping out in faith in Africa. Boy, is she stepping out. She is 20 with 14 girls who now call her mommy! I know of blogs about struggles with cancer or AIDS. None of those things apply to me. My life is really very boring compared to all those people.
You know what isn't boring? My brain! When I was a kid I was diagnosed as A.D.D. and my brain hasn't slowed down one iota in old age! I am a wisenheimer (whoa- I had to pull out an archaic word to avoid a PG-13 rating!) who noticed really odd things. I talk to strangers and tend to get them to really talk back!
Really, the point of this is for people to get to know my family, to get to know me. My family all lives rather far away and they always have. Now seems as good as time as any for them to experience my days. And, hey, if I run into a few old friends along the way- all the better!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)