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?

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!