lilaguide

Ok moms and grandmas....here is a helpful tip...

There is a website that will send you a $5 Target gift card for reviewing 10 baby/child products. You can also review children focused businesses in your local area (day care, kid play places, etc.). Its not hard to think of five things that you can write one sentence about.

I did mine last week and haven't got my gift card yet, but expect it to arrive eventually. I found this on an unrelated website where plenty of mom's were saying that they did receive the gift card.

It may not be much, but hey...its $5 to spend at Target....

For those of you with multiple addresses at your disposal...you could always make mutliple accounts and then receive more than one gift card. I am just saying its an option...

Here is the website: www.lilaguide.com

Have fun!

Praise the Lord!

My aunt sent me a funny email...wanted to share it! I think we should all strive for this kind of attitude, thought process, and outlook!!! :)

There was a little old lady, who every morning stepped onto her front porch, raised her arms to the sky, and shouted: 'PRAISE THE LORD!'

One day an atheist moved into the house next door. He became irritated at the little old lady. Every morning he'd step onto his front porch after her and yell: 'THERE IS NO LORD!'

Time passed with the two of them carrying on this way every day.

One morning, in the middle of winter, the little old lady stepped onto her front porch and shouted: 'PRAISE THE LORD! Please Lord, I have no food and I am starving, provide for me, oh Lord!

The next morning she stepped out onto her porch and there were two huge bags of groceries sitting there...'PRAISE THE LORD!' she cried out. 'HE HAS PROVIDED GROCERIES FOR ME!'

The atheist neighbor jumped out of the hedges and shouted:'THERE IS NO LORD; I BOUGHT THOSE GROCERIES!!'

The little old lady threw her arms into the air and shouted: 'PRAISE THE LORD! HE HAS PROVIDED ME WITH GROCERIES AND MADE THE DEVIL PAY FOR THEM!'

HA!

Overdue?

Apparently, I am overdue for a blog update. Robin reminded me of this as I dropped of Kale at her house this morning. It wasn't really a drop off...more like I finally had to just sneak out. She was letting him play in the water at the sink (this is Heaven in Kale's world) and I called a few minutes later and could hear him screaming his head off in the background. Have I told you what a WONDERFUL friend I have? I mean, who lets you leave your screaming toddler AND reassures you that he will be ok....all when she is trying to keep up with her two boys!!! She is superwoman and an angel all wrapped into one!

Ok...there are other things to blog about...but all you get right now is a list...with a few teasers and reassuring comments for you, and reminders for me....

Egg allergy and the blood draw
Fun Sunday and a little boy locked in a car (not Kale!)
Deals, Deals, Deals....consignments and garage sales (don't forget the dino toy!)
Shoes, Shoes, Shoes...and the door
You want us to wait how long????
The great unmentioned thing....

His hair cut got me grounded

Well, as you recall, Ep went fishing on Saturday. So, the rest of us went to get Kale's hair cut. The rest of us being me, Papaw, and MemaNana. I had decided to let them cut off quite a bit of his curls. Ok, all of his curls. I wanted him to have a "I'm ready for spring and being outside and being a sweaty boy" type of hair cut. Apparently, I was the only one ready for that. Geesh!

Here is a before pic....

And here is an after pic....

Ep says that he likes the hair cut, but that next time Kale needs a hair cut that he and MemaNana will take Kale and I can just go get my nails done. Wow! I think my hair cut choice got me officially grounded from making Kale's hair cuts decisions for quite a while. I still think it looks cute.

Ep and MemaNana both think the hair cut makes him look five years old....(giggle) I might could agree it makes him look about two years old!

It's the weekend!

Yea! Its finally the weekend. You know its been a crazy week when you forget to turn in your time sheet at work and your boss has to call you on Friday afternoon (because you left early to let your brain just relax).

This next week probably won't be any easier, but I am just hoping that nothing unexpected happens (yeah, ok, I need a reality check).

Fletcherville is gearing up for the Duck Duck Goose sale. That mean that MemaNana stayed this weekend and is going through her toy store...err..I mean Ebay finds...err...I mean piles and piles of toys. Papaw came down and got here sometime last night after we had all gone to bed.

Ep decided to go fishing...no big surprise there! Its ok, given that he survived yet another "my wife is not happy with me" day on Wednesday (All Men Are Idiots). I feel inclined to say that there were other men that contributed to my attitude in that post as well, it wasn't just Ep.

Anyway, Ep went fishing. Somewhere around 5:45 am was when he leaned down to kiss me goodbye and bumped my head. He always tells me when he is leaving and where he will be launching the boat. Its a rule and he understand why I need to know that info...and is very consistent about it. I love him for that and am thankful for that. He left...and I TRIED to return to sleep. Oh no, it wasn't happening. Kale slept another 45 minutes and then we went to invade MemaNana and Papaw.

Kale has been showing us that he isn't always fearless around older men. He was fearful of Papaw this morning, but after seeing MemaNana and me love on Papaw then Kale decided that maybe he wasn't so bad after all. Then Papaw got up out of bed and the fear took over again. Oh the fun!

Sometime today we are taking Kale to get his hair cut. No protests will be honored. Sorry!

Here is how our week is looking:

Monday or Tuesday--drop off DDG stuff

Wednesday--urology appt and 6pm early shop at DDG

Thurs or Friday--I am certain that MemaNana and Kale will make a return trip to the DDG sale.

Friday--(night) a big event for Ep's uncle for his many years of service with the FFA. I don't know how many years, but I know its a lot. Other than knowing its Friday night and its in Little Rock and that Ep's entire family will be attending...well, I don't know much else about it. Regardless, we are proud of him!

I need a new attitude

Apparently, I need a new attitude because my current on has me thinking the following:

1. Men are idiots. They come by this naturally and there is no correcting it. This doesn't mean I don't love the men in my life, it just means that I think they can all be idiots. Oh, and this doesn't apply to my son...he isn't a man yet.
2. If I have to hear my co-worker yap about her dog one more time--I just might bark at her. Loudly.
3. Men are frustrating. Again, they come by this naturally as well.
4. People don't need to make decisions at work based upon thier own ego's. I am convinced that if that small change was made, there would be a lot less aggravation and irrational decisions being made where I work. In addition, it would probably help the bottom line in the budget as well.
5. I think men can lose weight by simply looking at the fitness machines. A woman can slave away on one for hours and not lose a pound. I think this is why I find it so hard to even get on a machine in the first place.
6. If my sports bra's and bathing suits don't arrive in the next 24 hours, there are going to be some customer service folks that are NOT going to like the phone call they will receive from me.

Comments? Come on...I know there are at least a few of you who read this...and I need to hear from you today!

What a weekend...

On Friday morning, this is how our weekend was mapped out:

Saturday: Ep goes fishing all day; Marcia and MemaNana work on Duck Duck Goose stuff; Marcia cleans some of the house.

Sunday: relax and clean whatever part of the house didn't get cleaned on Saturday; MemaNana attends the Garden Show; Ep/Marcia/Kale go to Blake's birthday party

This is how it ended up:

Saturday: Ep stays home and doesn't go fishing. Marcia runs errands and come home by 11am. Ep goes to the gym and to eat lunch while Marcia and Kale hang out at home (and Kale naps). Mema Nana hangs around the house. We scored passes to a "early shop" for a consignment sale and so Ep/Kale stayed home for the evening while MemaNana and Marcia go hunting for deals. MemaNana loses her wallet. Let's just all be in agreement that it wasn't a fun experience. So far, no fraudulent charges have shown up so we are thankful for that. We expected the cash would be long gone and someone would just leave the wallet somewhere....nope, not yet anway. I still feel awful for her. She had an unsually high amount of cash with her and had high hopes of how she wanted to spend it....which makes me feel even more awful for her. Oh...and while we were hunting for deals (and then the wallet), it started snowing. Finally, we got some snow here...and we pretty much missed it because we were inside. O well.

Sunday: We admire the snow from inside because the wind was blowing at what felt like gale force. Brrrr, it was cold and everything was still wet. We abandoned the birthday party idea because part of the party was to be outside. Instead, we went to run some errands and eat lunch. We planned to return home for naps (for everyone!) and then Kale/Marcia were going to just hang out at the house while Ep went to work out. Or...maybe Kale would have got to go swimming. Kale had other plans....instead, we went to the ER with an allergic reaction to something he ate during lunch. Nothing at the house got cleaned this weekend, I don't think anyway. We did some minor "picking up" and such, but our bathroom still looks like a counter bomb exploded--meaning everything but the kitchen sink can be found on our bathroom counter. Did you know that when you child-proof your house, you also deter yourself from ever putting anything in those child-proof cabinets as well? Ha!

Anyway...here is stuff about Kale's ER visit yesterday....warning, its a repeat from his caringbridge blog if you read that....


This update brought to you courtesy of Kale "I like to scare the heck out of my famlily and like hospitals" Fletcher. I wonder if I can really change his name to that?

Yeah, well, mark it down. We went to the ER again. I guess Kale needed a dose of people wearing scrubs. At his 15 month appt, the doctor gave us the all clear to try the "6 avoided foods" for babies. You know, the ones that kids tend to be more allergic--nuts, fish, honey, etc...

So, today we were enjoying lunch at Luby's and I had the Almondine Fish--yes, that would be two of the "don't feed them this until they are two" products (almonds=nuts and fish=well, fish). I ordered Kale a bowl of broccoli cheesy rice, which he liked. We all fed him a little of this and that from our plates. He had some sweet potatoes, corn, green beans, fish, and coconut pie.

Fast forward an hour. We are get home and Kale has completely zonked out in the car. It was his nap time and the kid had a full belly--who wouldn't fall asleep, right? So we get him inside and as I laid him on his bed, of course he woke up. So, we took him to our bed and made the room dark and gave him a bottle. He refused to go back to sleep. Every parent loathes the day when a child gets only a 20 minute nap instead of the 1-2 hour kind. We were fighting him. He won, but only when we noticed that his eyes were turning red and swelling and he sneezed about 20 times in a row. Did you know that we can get ourselves dressed and out the door in under five minutes? We sure can! We were all in our pjs for the nap and had to completely get re-dressed.

I sat in the back seat with Kale and Mema came in my car a few minutes behind us. Kale wanted to just chill and look out the window between sneezing his head off. He HATES to have his nose wiped, but he was so worn out with sneezing that he just quit fighting me. So between nose wipes and sneezes, I sang him all the finger play songs I could think of in the effort to get him to keep facing me. I was scared that he would be looking out the windo and pass out and I wouldn't realize it because I couldn't see his face. I am pretty sure I told Ep to "just drive" about 6 times...meaning "go...go fast...drive like our daddies once did".

Once I got my baby inside the hospital, I relaxed. I can't describe all the emotions that come to me now. Its just a strange thing to be able to find comfort and calm while registering your child into the ER, but I did. I suppose it all goes back to that thing about my child nearly dying there...and they didn't let him. I have a lot of faith and trust in those people...even though I can't name a single one of the ER staff that treated him that day...or today either. Anyway.

All of his oxygen levels, breathing, etc were fine. I don't even know if he had a fever. He doesn't know how to have his temp taken orally (the nurse tried) so we had to go to the booty. Ep took care of his arms and head and tried to entertain him while I held his booty and legs as he laid on his belly on my lap. After all THAT, I forgot to ask what his temp was. I don't think she ever got his blood pressure either...he won't be still long enough. They have a hard time with that every time we go to clinic as well.

Once again, the ER staff did a great job! They got us in and out in about an hour. They were thorough and helpful. The doc determined that it was probably a food reaction and that Benadryl every 6 hours for the next 24 hours would be ok. They "watched" him for another 20 minutes or so and discharged us. Kale was ready to go after he got the medicine...he kept telling us "ah duh" which means "all done". We got him dressed and headed home. He zonked again on the way home. He didn't wake up from the transition from car seat to our bed. Kale and I slept for about 2.5 hours! He seems to be fine, except for some residual puffy eyes. We are supposed to go see his pediatrician in a couple days for a follow up. I will update you again after that...but until then, just pray for some calmness around our house!!!