Fletcherville

The officer at church

2012-02-05T12:19:00.000-06:00

Growing up, I was used to an armed officer being at church--and sometimes I even road to church with him, as he was my dad. It never once occurred to me that other people took note of it.

When my husband and I recently discussed getting back into the swing of things with church, I reassured him that it wouldn't be an issue for him to show up in uniform for service. He works Sunday, and if he is working then he is on call for all 24 hours of that day.

So, last Sunday, off to a new church we went. He met us there. We got the kids situated in their respective classes and found a place at the back of the auditorium that felt comfortable. We chose the back for two reasons: if his work phones rings, he MUST answer it and because our kids in a unfamiliar place almost guarantees we will be summoned for one of them (and Scout fulfilled that guarantee). We worshiped, we praised, and we truly enjoyed the church service. About half way through the service, Scout joined us in the auditorium. We kept her mostly quiet.

After service, we retrieved Kale from class and headed out the door. I noted that next time I should park closer to the entrance by the kid's classrooms. Sunday went on without much flair.

Turns out, somebody either inside or outside the church took note of my husband's uniformed presence. Within the next 24 hours, someone placed a call and it became apparent that at least one person questioned my husband's right to attend church in uniform.

The first thing I did was laugh. Good try devil. Not gonna work. We are still going to be going to church. My next thought was shame on the person so poorly representing the church and being so blinded by the devil to believe that a church would ever stand behind the idea of rebuking a uniformed officer. I have never heard a police agency refusing an officer the opportunity to attend church regularly. Sure, things come up and the officer may be unable to attend from time to time due to performing work duties (read: keeping the general public safe). I have known many an officer who used "lunch/supper hour" to attend church. No big deal. Nobody expects the officer to run home, change clothes, attend church, and then run home to change again. Since when did church have a stringent dress code anyway?

So, another call was made and it was made very clear to our family that we were welcome at the church and with my husband being in uniform. We knew we would be headed back to church there again this morning.

This morning, off we went. We met my husband at church. We were VERY reassured by a church leader that we were welcome there with him in uniform. We signed our four year old up for baseball, despite him yelling/screaming the whole way back to the car that he doesn't to play (he does, he just doesn't know it yet...he loves to hit the ball and loves to throw!). We went on our way. Life goes on. And we will continue to go back to church there.

January 9th

2012-01-08T21:16:00.003-06:00

I'm starting to have a general "dislike" for January 9th.

Last January 9th, I told my husband goodbye for a week as he started his training for work. For the following 16 weeks I saw my husband for maybe 48 hours each weekend. Most weekends it was less. He did get to call most nights. As I have said in other posts, I was pregnant, chasing a three year old, and working full time. I kept my sanity and gave myself reality checks by reminding myself that it could be worse--my husband could be a soldier who was away from home for much longer with less contact. Our daughter was named from one of the shows I watched to help me keep that reality check going.

This time last year, I had no idea I would be spouting off the "May mantra" again, but yet it stares us all in the face again. If I can make it through today, I can make it until May. A friend once shared that with me when I was struggling with a commitment I had made to work somewhere until May. Last year, I shared that mantra with my husband. We both repeated it several times throughout last spring. I am not sure who will sing it loudest this year....my brother, my sister in law, or my mom.

Tomorrow is January 9th and my little brother takes off for basic training with the Army National Guard. My sister in law is pregnant, about the same place in her pregnancy as I was this time last year. She chases an almost 18 month old little boy around non-stop.

Yep, I am pretty sure that I will just cross January 9th off the calendar next year...

Product Insight: Moby, Erog, Baby Spoon

2012-01-05T19:26:00.001-06:00

I have had a few mom's recently ask me for insight on wraps, specifically the Moby wrap. When I was still pregnant with my daughter, I polled people on wraps, slings, and carriers. I had given away the carrier I used on my son because it never seemed to feel comfortable enough. I ended up with both a Moby wrap and the Ergo carrier.

First off, do you really need a wrap/carrier/sling? Well, if this is your first child, then you don't necessarily NEED one. If you have a small child and are ever going to need to shop at Walmart or the grocery store with both children with you and not have someone to push a second cart...then HECK YES, YOU NEED SOMETHING! I have a four year old and 7 month old. I recently made a trip to Walmart by myself. Before I left the store, I stopped an assistant manager and asked him how in the world Walmart expects any mom who has to bring more than one child to put her children AND her groceries while she shops. By the time you put one child in the seat and leave an infant in the carseat in the big part of the basket...you have NO room for groceries. Unless you buy all your groceries at Target and enjoy pushing around a card the size of a semi, then you are probably going to want something for that one time when you have to go shopping and take all the kids with you!

That said....here are my thoughts on the wrap and some other products...

Moby Wrap
What I love about it: the concept, how it works when I get the wrap on in a comfortable hold, there are many different holds and you can adjust them to what best fits you and your baby, easy to wash, easy to store (wad it up, fold it up...whatever works!), you can use it from infancy through toddler years, and one size fits all! There are lots of youtube vidoes and online support from Moby on how to position for the different wrap holds. The fact that you can custom the holds to what works best for you and your baby is great.

What I don't love about it: I have yet to figure out who to put on the wrap without half the wrap being on the floor when I start to put it on. At home, this is fine. Out in public or in a parking lot, um, not so great. I really don't want to be wearing something that I just had on the floor or ground, much less putting my baby in it! The stretchy material is great, until you have been wearing the wrap long enough that it stretches out and your hold starts to not feel as secure. I am not a small girl. Warning: I am about to mention my boobs. My boobs aren't small either. When my daughter was smaller, it was like I couldn't get the wrap tight enough to really feel she was super secure, still accommodate my boobs and yet not feel I was going to smother her with my boobs. I recently wore her and at almost 18lbs, we had a great hold and the fit felt right without feeling like my boobs were going to smother her.

I will say that the one time I wore my daughter facing outward in the moby wrap, she seemed to feel a little overwhelmed, overstimulated, and wasn't sure what to do with her flailing arms/legs. I need to try it again now that she is a little older.

Side note, some moms can nurse while wearing the Moby...I have NO IDEA how they do that at all.

Overall, I am glad to have this as a baby-wearing option.

Ergo carrier
I was able to snag this carrier cheap from a online shopping site. Let me rephrase that...I convinced my mom to buy me this carrier from an online shopping site. I give credit where its due...thanks mom!

What I love: soft fabric, comes with hood to cover baby if outside in foul weather, adjustable, fairly easy on/off for carrier with straps, lots of padding in straps and comfortable to wear for extended time periods, option to carry baby on back (but I haven't been brave enough to try this yet).

What I don't like: I can't wear my daughter forward facing. Meaning, if I use the carrier on my front, then baby is facing me. There is no option for her to face outward. Not really sure if this is such a downfall, as I don't know how much I would use that option anyway...just thought I should mention it though.

Overall, this carrier is a little pricey, but I think its worth it...especially if you don't get a Moby.

I will put this in bold, just in case you missed the comment earlier: If you have a young child already and are adding a baby to the family, you need a carrier/wrap/something! Even if you aren't big on baby wearing...there are going to be at least a few times that you may have to do the grocery shopping with both (or all) kids with you and you are going to need somewhere to put the groceries! I assure you that I don't leave my house without one or both of my Moby or Ergo with me.

By the way, nobody is paying me or helping me out because I am promoting these products...just trying to give my honest opinions and help some fellow mommies out.

The "NEW" baby spoon
Take a cruise down the baby aisle and you will notice that there is a new type of "spoon" that has a handle that doubles as the food holder. Meaning, you pour the baby food into the handle and then squeeze the handle to release food onto the spoon. I LOVED the concept and hate the reality. So far, I have used mine once. I have about four more that I need to return. I just don't see us using these. For one, we mix our daughter's baby food with cereal and this doesn't work as well with this type of "spoon". Also, I like the rhythm of the dip, scoop, feed. Once its time for our daughter to start using a spoon, there is no way she could use this to learn how to eat. Overall, I am just not a fan. Again, great concept but I hate the reality. Just wanted to share that about this trendy little item.

I hope that helps and if you have questions, you can ask away! Just comment here or send me an email or shout at me on facebook...

Dear 2012

2012-01-02T22:59:00.004-06:00

Well hello there 2012. So glad to meet you. If you see my old friend 2011, tell it I said goodbye and that it was a little too marathonish for me. See, 2011 unfolded something like this:

Jan 9--my husband began 16 weeks of training that took him away from home every Sunday night through Friday afternoon. He was allowed to call home each evening he was gone, but the timing was random and there were more than a few nights of waiting up past bedtime for his call because he was out in the woods dancing with trees, cleaning, holding books in the air, or whatever his "trainers" had him doing. This wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't 20 weeks pregnant and chasing a 3 year old...oh, and working full time.

Jan 18--my birthday. Enough said.

Jan 25ish--we put our house up for sale...constantly keeping it "show worthy" clean in case someone called and wanted to view the house at the drop of a dime.

Feb and Mar--are just a blur as I tried to prepare us for having a baby, possibly moving, and not lose my mind.

April 7--went to doc for pregnancy check up and got sent home on modified bed rest due to elevated blood pressure...was determined not to flunk this time around.

April something or other--twice I got sent to the hospital for observation...once for four hours and once overnight. At least I got to bond with the nurses for when the real deal happened.

April something or other again--I listed our house for rent, showed it, and rented it to the first family who responded to the ad. We took our house off the real estate market.

April 28 or 29...I think the 28th--my husband became a fully commissioned officer who wears a gun everyday and I really started relearning my 10 codes (police language).

May 1--my husband started his new assignment 150 miles away while I stayed behind with the 3 year old and my pregnant belly. He came home for his days off. The other five days/week he was 150 miles away.

May 15--my husband came home so we could have a baby...and pack. Somewhere in here, he rents us a house. I am now moving to a house I have only seen in iphone pics. No stress there.

May 17--we went to the hospital for an everyday c-section delivery of a full term baby girl, expecting to leave the operating room with her resting on my chest. Instead, she went to the NICU. If it tells you anything, I just recently remembered to ask my mom what it was my husband said when he came to the waiting room to announce her birth. At least I remember more about the day she was born than the day her brother was born. Oh, and they took me to see her on my way back from the OR to my room. Not sure they normally do that, but they did! Maybe that bonding I had done with them earlier was part of that. My husband and I didn't allow anyone back to see her because we knew she needed rest and healing, and that isn't compatible with lots of visitors and noise. We did take our 3 year old back to see his sister. He got to see her through a window. He doesn't remember it, but I do. The look on his face was incredible and he got so quiet...which NEVER happens.

May 18, 19, 20--pretty much a blur...I remember being asked if I wanted to room in with my daughter one night before heading home...all I could think was "let's get out of here". So, about 10 minutes before I got discharged, guess who showed up in my room ready to go home with us? Yep, a little baby girl. And off we went. I was home for about 3 hours when the stress, hormones, and a little bit of self diagnosed post traumatic stress syndrome kicked in on me. I definitely wasn't me for a few days.

May 24--lets add a wreck to the fun. My husband is with my dad, coming back from "taking a load" from our old home to our new one. I call the doc and tell him that something just isn't right and the medicine he prescribed isn't working and I am not waiting 6 weeks for things to level out. I won't make it that long. Doc tells me to come in at 4:30 and he will work me in at the end of the day. My mom is driving because I am a week out from having a c-section. We had picked up Kale, so both kids are in the back seat. Traffic comes to a halt on the interstate. We stop. The car behind us doesn't. Nothing like a rear end collision when you have a belly wound that is trying to heal, your week old daughter in the vehicle, and your 3 year old along for the ride. Here is the irony...whatever it was that my body needed to get me back on track was found somewhere in the reaction to that wreck. My nerves needed something to respond to at that point and they got it in a big way. We were all deemed fine and eventually drove on to the doctors office. I joked with the nurse that maybe the wreck shook loose whatever had ahold of me. Apparently, I was right. I suddenly felt like myself again and was moving forward.

May 28--the keys were handed off to the new renters, my husband was at work and anxiously awaiting our arrival at our new home...so off we went. Exhausted doesn't even begin to touch what we were feeling. I think my parents are still trying to recover from those few weeks.

June--we settled in...sort of. Kale started daycare because he would get up each morning, look at me and his sister and then ask "what are we going to do here today". After three days of me telling him we were going to eat, nap, and change diapers...he needed something different. He went to hang out with what he called "my kids".

July--we agreed that the rental house wasn't big enough for the four of us. I also gave my two weeks notice at my former job and finished out my maternity leave. I could finally tell people what had been going on in our lives.

July/August--the fields behind our rental house caught fire. The first time, we didn't have to evacuate. The second time, we evacuated. Nothing like gathering up all you can and two babies and not knowing if the rest of your stuff will be charred rubble when you return. I didn't unpack the back of my truck for a few days. I hadn't had it unpacked the first time for more than a few hours when we realized the field was on fire and all of it went right back in the truck so we could leave...without my husband because he was off to help fight the fire.

Late July--I had applied for a job and got the awaited phone call that they wanted to hire me. My "time off" suddenly had an end date and the worry about what to do when my maternity leave pay ended was for nothing because this job would pick up right where that pay would end. Hello God.

August...new job, started Scout in daycare...then changed the kids daycare so they could both be at the same place...thats about all I remember about that month.

Sept--just a blur.

Oct--organized a birthday party for Kale (now 4) and then promptly started packing to move (again). We were let out of our lease and found a larger house in a more convenient location...so off we went. I joked that we could get moved in three days. The joke was on me. The calvary showed up to help us move and by golly we were moved in less than three days. I am still unpacking.

Nov and Dec...a blur of holidays...mixed with Scout learning to crawl, sit up, and pull up in a matter of a few weeks.

There was some other stuff in 2011...but mostly what I remember was stress....so, 2011, I might be a few days late...but you were fun and adventurous but I am glad you are gone. Dear 2012, I really hope we can agree to be a little slower paced...but knowing my kids and husband, I doubt it.

The road to flirting

2011-12-19T19:57:00.002-06:00

When I arrived to pick up Scout from school today, I found her in an excersaucer jabbering with a little boy in the exersaucer next to her. She was giving him an earful. He was laughing at her. It was incredibly funny and all I could do was stand there and take it in. I was able to get a little bit of video of her "talking" to him and him laughing at her like he knew what she was saying and that it was funny. She has been "talking" a lot in the past 24 hours...but here is the video so you can hear it as well!

I am not quite sure what her daddy is going to think of her talking to boys already...she totally acted shy when she realized I was watching her talk to him. Cracked me up! She then started being all kinds of coy. I think we just started down the road of "Scout the obvious flirt".

God's Rule and God knows

2011-12-04T20:42:00.001-06:00

My husband enjoys a nightly bedtime snack of Oreo's and milk. Most times, he waits until Kale has gone to bed before indulging. Tonight, either the snack time came early or God had a point to prove. You choose. I'm going with God having a point.

Kale discovered his daddy indulging in one of his favorite snacks. When I say his, I mean both of them. Kale asked his daddy to share. Knowing that Kale has enjoyed several "snacks" since dinner, he firmly told him no.

Kale did what most four year old boys would do when daddy doesn't share. He told on him. Kale came to me and firmly said, "Daddy isn't sharing. God tells us to share. God says daddy should share." Um, yes son, you are correct. I couldn't help but laugh and told Ep good luck with that one.

Ep laughed as Kale climbed up in his lap and took over the Oreo's and milk.

God knew we needed the laugh.
God has been making us pay for our raising all afternoon with Kale, who has been a hellion on wheels.
God knew I needed the reminder that the sacrifices ($$$$) are worth it for the Christian daycare he attends.
God knew Kale probably needed a relaxing moment in his daddy's lap.
God just knew.

God has rules and God knows....I am reminded of these things because my husband wouldn't share his Oreo cookies.

Funny how God works.

Ages

2011-11-19T09:51:00.001-06:00

Its been ages since my last post. I can't even begin to fathom how I will catch up. So....

Kale turned four, had a party at the park, had a great time, he threw a 2 year old fit (twice), he really liked his presents.

Scout started eating cereal around four months...moved on to baby food mixed in around 5.5 months...had an allergic reaction to instant mashed potatoes (can't be outdone by brother) which required an ER visit and now we think maybe she is allergic to milk? She loves sweet potatoes, squash, and bananas. She isn't sure about green beans. The coming weeks will bring carrots and peas to her mouth.

Speaking of eating...its paying off for Scout. She went from 14lbs 5oz to 15lbs 5oz in a matter of a few weeks. Her body weight shifts a lot though: at the ER she weighed 15lbs 10oz....and the NEXT day at the doctor she weighed 15lbs 15oz.

Since she is packing on the weight, Scout has started her own exercise program. Its called the "roll, wiggle, scoot, and rock to get where she wants" program. She really got into it this week. Its a matter of moments or days until she is crawling and then I will be dead. So, if you don't see another post from me, that is why.

Kale is, well, Kale. He loves his little sister to the moon and back. He truly adores her and compliments her daily. Several times a week, he will randomly tell me that "I love my baby sister". Melts my heart. He is lashing out a bit at me and his dad. Don't blame him. The only constant in his life this year has been unexpected change. New houses (twice), new school (twice), and a baby sister. He likes structure and knowing how things are going to be...and he can't figure out his daddy's work schedule at all. Heck, I can't figure out my husband's work schedule most of the time either. Kale is the kind of kid who wants to know who/where/what/when/how ALL the time.

Kale recently spent the night at my parent's house and while he was there, he learned the hard lesson about who is in charge. He thought he was in charge. By the time he came home, he knew my parent's were in charge. I asked him, "Kale, who is in charge at Mema/Papaw's house?" and he replied "Mema and Papaw". I then got hopeful and followed up with "so who is in charge at our house" and the kid didn't miss a beat and said, "I AM!". We are slowly trying to change that. Given that he got a double shot of stubbornness, strong will, persistence, and "I like things my way"....this isn't going to be an easy or quick battle and we know it.

My work keeps me busy. I hit the door running and don't stop all day. My day starts with kid related stuff, moves on to work, goes back to kid stuff, and then ends when everyone else is in bed. I randomly might get to bed before my husband about one night every few weeks. Kale still wants me to lay down with him and its going to be a hard wean to get him away from that addiction. It doesn't help that his mommy enjoys that cuddle time with him. We are just enabling each other.

My husband seems to work all the time these days. Such is life when you are a wildlife officer in the middle of major hunting seasons in a huge hunting state.

We are trying to find the new normal and settle. We will see....

Kale's prayer

2011-10-02T20:51:00.001-05:00

My heart just might explode.

Kale's prayer tonight: Dear God, thank you that I got to play outside, thank you that my daddy came home safely, and thank you for Mema taking care of Papaw with his boo boo eye. Amen

That's right kid, AMEN!!!

Sweet Brother

2011-09-26T21:45:00.001-05:00

Tonight, Scout wasn't feeling well. She settled down and fell asleep on my chest as I stretched out in the recliner. Kale came into the room and I told him that sissy didn't feel good. He walked over, didn't say a word, and kissed his sister on her forehead. He then turned and walked away. Meanwhile, my heart was overwhelmed with the love my children already have for one another.

A few moments ago, as I was snuggled up to Kale, I told him it was sweet that he kissed his sister earlier. His reply? I know mommy.

My lesson for the night? Life is in the little moments!

The Notes

2011-09-25T10:17:00.001-05:00

Someone must have talked to the kids at Kale's school about notes. All of a sudden, I am getting notes at home from Kale. He will ask for paper, get his marker, and scribble scrabble a note.

Last night his note said this: Dear school, Kale is not allergic to eggs.

God help me. He is writing a note with a blatant lie at age 3 (almost 4). I am scared of where that will lead when he is oh, say 8 years old and forging our names.

His note to me this morning was apparently a combination of a note and prayer: Dear mommy, I want to stay home with you, daddy, and sissy. Amen.

Gotta love him!

Each night

2011-09-25T10:14:00.000-05:00

Each night I lay down with Kale as he falls asleep. This started again after we moved. I had once escaped this routine, but moving and him suddenly being on the other side of the house just messed his whole bedtime routine. Since we are moving again soon to another house in the area, I am waiting to "re-train" him until we are moved and settled.

I lay there next to my son and as his sleepiness takes over, he becomes really calm and snuggly. I often end up staying there beside him in bed after his breathing has found steady pace and he is snoozing. It is in those moments that I relive his day with me and wonder how I can sometimes get so frustrated with such a loving and sweet boy. Oh...it would be because while he is awake, he will push all of us to our limits repeatedly. He can't help it, as God just made him that way. It seems he inherited all of the same characteristics that his parents had that drove his grandparents crazy at he time...and then God threw in a few extra just for giggles. Still, he is an amazing, loving, and wonderful boy. I wouldn't want him any other way.

So, when you read a post about Kale and its time stamped after 9pm, you can pretty much bet that it was written on my phone while I am cuddled up next to him. Just wanted to document the origin of those posts...

Pant shopping with Kale

2011-09-24T21:59:00.002-05:00

Dear Kale,

Once again son, you have run me ragged. Actually, life in general has run me ragged and you are God's reminder of what is important and why I do what I do.

Taking you "pant shopping" today was not what you had in mind as a special surprise. See, you have decided that non school days must include a special surprise. We managed to find some pants that fit and you scored some new John Deere shirts too! Your face literally lit up when you saw those shirts.

Thank you son for giving me the chance to practice my patience while trying to get you to try on pants and for reminding me that you are almost as strong willed as me! My apologies to the people in Kohls who were nearly run over by an almost four year old cart pusher who was running from his Mema and momma. My apologies also go out to those who nearly lost their hearing as you screamed the whole way to the back of the store because you knew you were in trouble.

I love you son. I hope you grow like crazy this next year. If you do, your daddy will be taking you short shopping in the spring!

Love, Mommy

Love, mom

Dear Kale

2011-09-18T22:57:00.003-05:00

Dear Kale,

Son, sometimes I really wonder what on earth kind of madness your daddy pulled as a child to make us both pay so hard for our raising. See, there is no way that the paying we are doing while raising you is my fault! Ok, that is probably not true.

You get your persistence from me. Your poor daddy is just up a creek if your sister is as persistent as you and me. You get your stamina and metabolism from your daddy. You just NEVER stop.

Today, at different times, you managed to push both of your parents to the "about to go crazy" limit.

Yet, as I lay here next to you in bed listening to you breathe, I know that I wouldn't want you to be any different than exactly who you are....

The little boy with his feet thrown over my legs because you have always preferred to your feet touching me. The little boy who is scared of lightning and "sunder". The little boy who is singing to me more and more and who melts me every time he asks me to sing the Jesus song. The little boy who gets in trouble because he loves his sister so much that he just can't stay out of her face and is always trying to kiss on her...feet, head, legs...you want to love on all of her and it's the sweetest love too. The little boy who is fascinated with all things involving wheels, especially tractors. The little boy who asks "what today is it?" and truly has his own concept of time going.

Yes Kale, mommy loves you more than ever and for being exactly who you are, even on the days when you make me feel like I hit a brick wall.

The park

2011-09-16T22:01:00.001-05:00

I recently dropped Scout off at home with her daddy and

enjoyed some "at the park" time with Kale after work.

He had a blast! Can you tell which slide was his favorite???

This pretty much sums up what he

thought of our adventure to the park!

Slowing Down

2011-09-16T21:43:00.000-05:00

So, apparently, I am supposed to slow down. How do I know this? Well, I am pretty sure that God is trying to send me that message on the road.

Each day, I make a 30 minute drive to work with both my kids, who are dropped off at daycare just before I get to work. I have to leave the house by a certain time to beat the traffic, drop them off, and be at my desk by 8am. Just a few minutes delayed, and the whole commute turns stressful in a hurry....more traffic, more rushed getting the kids to their classrooms (although their teachers are great and I can literally drop Scout off still in her car seat...one guess as to how I know this).

Monday, after I had picked up the kids, we were on our way home. We had gone a few blocks and were approaching a busy street. I had the green light but slowed to make sure traffic was stopped or would stop. I came to a stop before I entered the intersection because despite having the green light, there was an approaching "box truck" (think big UHaul type truck) that either never saw the light or just didn't care to stop. I was thankful the car behind me stopped and didn't ram me either. If I had proceeded into the intersection, we would have been hit on the drivers side of my truck and that would mean all three of us would have taken a direct hit. Kale sits directly behind the driver's seat and Scout is right next to him. Scary thought. It made tears come to my eyes when I realized that "driving ahead of myself" had possibly just saved our lives. Even though the truck passed a good 15 feet in front of me, it still made me shaky to think about what could have happened.

Then there was Wednesday at lunch. My husband doesn't even know this part of the story. I went out for lunch, which included grabbing a quick fast food meal and then browsing a consignment shop. On my way back to work, I was cruising along and was thankfully paying attention when a young woman carrying a baby in an infant seat started across the crosswalk in front of me. I had plenty of time to stop, but she didn't seem to care if traffic was going to stop for her. She just walked right on out into the street. The crosswalk isn't at an intersection with a stoplight, so its not as noticeable. Had I not been paying attention, it could have been a bad situation.

Apparently, I wasn't getting the message. So, Thursday morning I had another opportunity to get the message. My husband had to leave extra early so I was solo with getting myself and both kids up, fed, dressed, and on our way. My days start at 5:30am and I am not a morning person. If I am lucky, my bedtime is 9:15, but usually ends up being later. So, by Thursday morning I am dragging and feeling the wear of the week on my body. I was a good ten minutes late getting out the door. Yep, I hurried on the commute. I got the kids to school and to their classes and got back in my truck with just enough time to get to my parking spot, make the trek into work, and get to my desk on time....if I hurried. Its easy to hurry until the blue lights show up behind you. In 21 years of driving, I had never been pulled over until Wednesday. When I saw the blue lights, I hoped it was my brother because he was working that morning. When he didn't immediately open the door and hop out of the patrol unit, I knew I was in trouble. So, I did what any sister would do, I called my brother and begged him to somehow have the officer show me leniency. I got pulled over for not letting an old lady get on her bicycle and completely leave the crosswalk. The street is extra wide with parallel parking on both sides and is a one way street. I was on the right side of the street and she was on the left, a few feet from the curb and had paused to get onto her bicycle. I went on through the crosswalk. Here came the blue lights. The officer stepped out and was a beanstalk. He told me why he stopped me, took my license, registration and insurance, and went back to his unit. I immediately called my brother.

**Side note: I was mean as all get out to my brother when we were little. I loved him immensely (and still do), but I also tormented him. He saw his chance for some revenge and took it. He let me know the officer was working special assignment crosswalk patrol and couldn't write me a warning. I was getting a ticket. I wanted to cry. I didn't. But I wanted to. The officer brought me my WARNING and let me go. It was only then that my brother sent me a message to say he was just messing with me about the ticket. Silly younger brother...you got me, but I will get you back, don't you worry! Ok, side note over.**

You would think the word "WARNING" might get my attention. It did, but not enough. I knew I was going to be late for work, but was hoping it would only be by a few minutes at this point. I turned into the parking lot and groaned. There wasn't one parking spot. Oh wait, there was one spot. It was way down at the end of the row that is assigned for state employee parking (that is me!). I considered myself lucky because I have been told that if you get to work after 7:55 you may not find a parking spot you won't have to pay for, as there are not enough spots for the number of employees. Whew. I got a spot. I parked and took off for my desk. I completely missed the fact that the last two parking spots on that row are marked with numbers and not the "state employee parking with permit" signs. The numbered spots require you to pay a lot meter. I walked out of work that afternoon and was looking forward to some time with the kids and my mom as we ran a few errands. Oh look, a yellow envelope on my truck! Even better, a parking ticket inside the yellow envelope! I started laughing. Ok God, I get it. Slow down.

I managed to go from never getting pulled over to pulled over and given a warning and scoring a parking ticket all in one day...in less than 9 hours. Besides the slow down lesson and my brother getting the chance to have some revenge, the only other good thing I can name from the experience was that at least my husband was out of town at training as they ran my license plate not once, but twice in the same day. If he had been in town, he could have easily heard it on the radio traffic. It might have stood out to him since he would have heard his own name go across the radio.

However, I did do one thing in a hurry...I paid my parking ticket. I was warned by both my loving officers (husband and brother) that if I didn't pay it, a warrant would be issued for me. I think I will draw the line at having to ask them to come bail me out of jail because I didn't pay a $5 parking ticket.

I get it God, slow down!

12 years ago

2011-09-10T09:31:00.000-05:00

I love this time of year. The weather FINALLY starts to cool off, I can start changing the clothes from summer to winter in my closet (because I am bored with my summer clothes at this point), Razorback football gets into full swing, and I get nostalgic about that one fall where God threw a huge kink in my plan and then showed me His plan.

**right here is probably where my husband is rolling his eyes and will quit reading**

Twelve years ago, I had just met my husband. I didn't know he would be my husband. I didn't even know I was in the market for a husband because I thought I had already picked mine out. Yep, really. Seems God had a different pick and was about to let me know it. I was starting my senior year of college. After a rocky spring/summer with the guy I was supposedly going to marry, I walked into my fall classes ready for a fresh start and determined not to let my world completely revolved around my love life. God laughed.

So, yeah, I walked into my first two classes on Monday. They were back to back. There was this one guy in both of the classes and I remember thinking that he and I needed to become friends so we could cover for one another if one of us should decide to skip a day. Then I went to class on Tuesday...again, back to back classes. Well, guess who was also in both of those classes? Yep, same guy. He was in all four of my classes. Then I really decided we should be friends because we could skip TWO days and still be ok with one phone call. I didn't perpetually skip class, but I didn't mind skipping from time to time. So, I had intentions of making friends with this guy because he seemed nice enough, was friendly, and we were in all four classes together. God laughed. The irony is that my attendance that fall was probably better than any other semester. The reason? I wanted to see that guy and knew I could see him if I went to class.

Did I mention that I was um, seeing someone else at the time. Um....I don't think God laughed at that one and boy did I ever create one big chaotic mess there.

So, back to this guy in my class. One day I read an essay in class. That same day, after class, there was a note on my truck window with his name, number, and call me written on it. I still have the note. I remember standing there wondering how this guy knew which truck was mine since he hadn't walked with me to my truck (yet). I was too flustered by the thought of should/shouldn't I call him to be worried about the fact that the guy had basically stalked me (and this might have been my first clue to him choosing his eventual career...and I totally missed the clue). I didn't call him. I apologized the next day. I don't remember what excuse I gave. The truth was that I couldn't find the guts to call him that night. God laughed and then gave me the guts as I moved forward.

What started as group lunches after class turned into just me/him lunches. And I wasn't exactly single. It was like I was a boomerang. The more I tried to run from the situation, God turned me right around and flung me right back towards it. You would think I might have clued into that, but I didn't. I still thought I was in control. God laughed. You might think that the moment I knew I was in over my head would be surrounded by chirping birds, romantic music...something like that. Nope. We were sitting in a Taco Bell and had been there for over two hours. We ate lunch and just kept talking...and talking...and talking. I have documented this story here before and what happened through the rest of that weekend was tormenting, exciting, and life altering. The bottom line is that by Monday morning, I was no longer seeing the other guy and wasn't sure where I was headed with this new guy.

That new guy turned into my husband, eventually. He is a fisherman. However, he had absolutely NO IDEA that he had just landed one really feisty and persistent fish. When he did figure that part out, he tried to throw me back a few times. It didn't work. He would turn around and I was right there in the boat. God had a good laugh at him too.

I am a few weeks early on this, simply because none of this story unraveled over night. Those group lunches started weeks before I finally got the message to end one relationship for good and start fresh with someone else. At least I finally got the message. On Sunday, October 4, 1999, I got God's message loud and clear. I could choose who I wanted, but He had his own plans for me and they weren't the plans I had designed. He not only showed me who my life mate would be (although I didn't know it that night), but He also reminded me of who was in charge. There have been a few times since that I have slipped back into thinking I am in charge...and every time God sends me a reminder and its usually through my husband. Most times, when that happens, I am not even sure my husband knows how much God is working through him.

So, here we are, 12 years have passed. We just recently moved back to the town where we first met. My husband's new job and career brought us here. Talk about coming full circle. We left here twice before...yet here we are again and this time with two kids in tow. We know God has a plan for us here, because we know that God's plan is always in action. After all, we are the result of God's plan in action.

I'm just thankful for the man God gave me as my mate and the father of my two amazing kids!

Kale's prayer tonight

2011-09-10T08:53:00.000-05:00

Dear God,

Thank you for the orange tractor and the blue tractor at my Mema's house.

In Jesus name, Amen.

Look Out!

2011-09-05T09:01:00.000-05:00

Look out y'all...I have time to write a post. Kale is at Mema's house, I have a day off from work, Ep is at work, and Scout is sleeping. It will probably have to be another holiday before I have time to post again.

Things are well here. I don't want to write an entire book, so I am just going to bullet what has been happening around here:

I got a new job. It was the first job I applied for after we moved here. I am a program eligibility specialist with DHS.
The kids were attending two separate daycares. I put Kale in daycare this summer so that he/I wouldn't kill each other. He was tired of me and bored with the "newborn in the house" lifestyle, so I found a "school" for him and he liked it there. That school didn't take kids under 2, so when I landed a job sooner than expected, I had to find a place for Scout. It only took a few weeks of carting each of them to different places and knowing that Ep's help with that would be limited this fall...and I finally found a place that would provide great care to both kids! Plus, they are only five minutes from my work, so I don't have to come all the way home if I need to run errands.
We had a close call last month. The dry weather and some kids being stupid led to a fire that came way to close to where we are living. We experienced one near evacuation and thankfully I didn't unpack us much from that because a few days later we had to evacuate for real. Nothing like leaving your house with your kids and what you could throw in your truck and seeing flames shooting out of the trees behind the house while your husband has just thrown his work clothes back on to go work the situation. Thankfully, we have wonderful friends here and they opened their door to me and the kids. Our house was fine, but I did find some burned debri that landed in our yard...thankfully it did not ignite.
Kale is doing great and being three. He is testing us daily. We experience our fare share of temper tantrums, yelling, and other boundary pushing fun. When I get frustrated with him, I try to remember that he is three and has had his whole work turned upside down multiple times in the past 4 months.
Kale has adjusted pretty well to being a big brother. If he hears his sister crying, he comes running. More times than not, we have to tell him to not get so close to his sister's face....he loves to talk to her, love on her, and is completely smitten with her. She just encourages him by smiling big at him.
Scout is growing literally daily. She talks to us (lots of gggaaa and maaaa) all the time. She only fusses when she is tired or hungry. She smiles at us all the time and we just melt every time. About a month ago, I bought her 3 lovies (small square velour blankies with an animal head...monkey, giraffe, and hippo). She loves all three and currently will shove any of them in her mouth if given the chance. That and the amount of drool we are seeing makes us wonder if the teething adventure is right around the corner.
Kale still likes to zick (lick) a sucker, has a hoke-a-matrol (remote control) car, and still loves anything with wheels (especially tractors).

So...thats us...thats not everything, but its a start...and my little sleeper is waking up now.

Scout on the move

2011-09-04T23:00:00.001-05:00

Well, you can see how much time I have to blog lately...none!

Wanted to get in a quick post to document a milestone for Scout.

This afternoon, her daddy put her on the floor for tummy time and instead of protesting, she just resolved the problem of being on het tummy by turning over to her back. I walked in right after it happened...but didn't see it. She hasn't yer done or again bit has been trying now for at least a week. It's only a matter of time until she gets it figured out and then she will be rolling everywhere!

For the record, she has been doing pinwheels in her crib for weeks now. She is really good at 180's and every once in a while will complete a 360 just to show out.

FREE Happy Baby Product coupon!

2011-07-18T19:27:00.000-05:00

This is awesome and there is actually time for me to sit down and share this with you! If you are a mom to a baby or toddler, you will want in on this deal!!! Yes, I will get credit if you sign up for RECYCLEBANK, but I assure you that I would not refer my own family and friends to do something like this to just get credit if it were junk. Its NOT! This is a chance for me to share the opportunity for you to get a free Happy Baby Coupon! It took me about 10 minutes to sign up and earn enough points for the coupon last night.

Sign up for RecycleBank HERE

I noticed today that the FREE Happy Family Product Coupon on RECYCLEBANK that has been sitting at 200 points forever has changed to only 150 points.

This coupon is a mailed offer, not a printable, so it will be accepted at Target, and it is valid for ANY Happy Baby/Happy Family product up to $6! If you are new to RECYCLEBANK earning the points for this coupon is super easy with all the ways to earn right now in the Green Your Vacation Challenge too.

IF YOU ARE NEW TO RECYCLEBANK
To get this coupon, you will first need to sign up for a NEW RECYCLEBANK account. It’s completely FREE to join and if you are completely new to RECYCLEBANK then you can quickly & easily follow these instructions to earn enough points for this coupon:

1) You will first need to Sign up or log in to your RECYCLEBANK account (completely FREE to join).

2) Come back to this post and click on this link: RECYCLEBANK'S GREEN YOUR VACATION

3) Once there, click on the word “travel” above the closed suitcase, to get it to open like in the photo.

4) Once the suitcase is open, click on any of the animated items (train, ship, plane, both cars, raining clouds, red suitcase on the train, and flying bag) to quickly and easily earn points in your account! Once you are done with the Travel area, click on the “Beach” and “Camping” areas to collect even more points!

IF YOU ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT
If you already have a RECYCLEBANK ACCOUNT just click on the “get rewards” tab once you are signed in to access this coupon under grocery & beverage on the left.U sually Recyclebank is pretty fast at mailing out coupons too.

If you haven’t done so yet be sure to check out all the ways to earn under the Earn Points tab, including the RECYCLEBANKGreen Your Vacation Contest under the “Earn Points” tab. The “travel”, “beach” and “camping” areas are now open on the Green Your Vacation Home page, and you can easily earn points in each of these areas! You will also earn points when you refer your friends and they complete activities in the “Green Your Vacation” contest too. The other category, staycation will open up randomly sometime the latter part of July offering more opportunities to earn points. Top point earners will win various prizes including a vacation to Costa Rica or the Galapagos Islands!

Not Familiar with Recyclebank? Recyclebank is a great program that rewards you for recycling by working with a variety of partners. You can add points in many different easy ways, answering quick questions, purchasing specially marked products and trading in your old electronics. Just go here and sign up for RECYCLEBANK to find out all the ways to earn and save!

Scout Gracyn Fletcher

2011-07-18T00:43:00.000-05:00

On May 17th, at 38.5 weeks pregnant, I went to the hospital to deliver my daughter. It was a scheduled c-section. My birth plan was simple because I had learned from my son's birth---don't plan too much because it will NOT go as you plan. My birth plan for Scout was for my husband and I to go back to recovery and then my room together and spend time alone with her before allowing her big brother into the room to meet her and spend some solo time with her. Then, only after her brother had loved on her a bit, would everyone else meet her. Pretty simple. Scout had a different birth plan. Apparently there is a sign in my uterus that says "be dramatic with your birth and show mommy who is boss!"

By the time I checked in for delivery, most of the nurses already knew me from my three previous "observation" visits over the past couple of weeks. My nurse knew I was specifically scheduled that day and asked to be my nurse. Hey, I am just thankful that not all the nurses were running the other direction from me at that point!

I was scheduled to deliver at 11:30am. I was prepped. My anxiety over the epidural (it took five tries with my son) placement was all for nothing, as the epidural was easily placed on the first try. I definitely had the jitters. I was chewing ice like crazy because it was the only thing I was allowed to have. During all this, my husband read the paper and investigated financing for a possible vehicle purchase. Don't get me wrong, he was supportive of me and knew his role...but he also knew that all the prepping was up to the nurses. I was all ready to go when the nurse came in to let us know that an emergency c-section had just bumped me back an hour, which translated to an hour and a half. When it was finally my turn, all my jitters had gone away and I was remarkably calm given that a doctor was about to cut a six inch line into my belly.

They rolled me to the OR and Ep had to wait outside as they prepped everything and finished prepping me in the sterile room. The doctor appeared and then my husband appeared. Everyone was chatting. All was well and the procedure began. Ep was sitting near my head. I had already cleared it with the anesthesiologist for Ep to be able to stand up and watch them pull Scout from my belly. I wanted him to see his daughter being born, just like he watched his son be born. So, the doc let him know to stand up and he watched as they literally pulled Scout from my belly. And he took pictures. Now I know what it looks like. Yes, really. Its amazing. No, I will not post the pictures here. I will tell you its incredible to look at a picture of your own child being pulled from your belly.

Scout was born at 1:23pm weighing 8lbs and 5oz. She was 20 inches long and had fat rolls, including a double chin. She hollered at us. I was laying there when suddenly I see the doctors hands holding a baby over the drape. There was my daughter's beautiful scrunched up face looking down at me. She looked like this:

Scout was then taken over to the baby warmer, where the nurses poked and prodded her. Her daddy watched from afar until the nurses summoned him over to take more pictures and also to start filling him in on a concern.

Scout had some concerns of her own and let us know by hollering at us. She was not happy to have left my warm belly and arrived in such a cold room!

They prepped her for transfer to the NICU because she was raspy with her breathing and seemed to have fluid somehow in or around her lungs. As the nurses explained this to me (the drape had been lowered and I could somewhat see them and Scout), I am pretty sure that my brain just kind of left the room and took my emotions with it. I didn't say a word to anyone, but I nearly passed out. I felt myself start to fade, but rolled my head the other direction and snapped myself out of it. I am not even sure if the anesthesiologist realized that happened. All I know is that then I had a massive headache.

By the time I went through recovery (they said it would be a couple of hours, but my husband and I both agree that we think it was less than an hour!), Scout had settled in up at the NICU. They wheeled my entire hospital bed into the NICU for me to see her again before going to my room. I will be eternally grateful for that. This is Scout all snuggled in her NICU bed and wearing a diaper backwards.

And this is Scout at one day old, still wearing her diapers backwards.

Although it broke my heart that our birth plan did not work out, we were thankful for things to go as well as they did despite the circumstances. Kale got to see his little sister through a glass window instead of getting to hold her. We did not allow anyone else in to see her because she needed to rest and a quiet and calm NICU room was what we needed her to have for a quick recovery. My parents met Scout the next day, but they were not yet allowed to hold her. I got to hold Scout when she was right at one full day old. My husband held her when she was two days old.

We stayed in the hospital for 3 nights and were both discharged together on Friday when Scout was 3 days old. She was in the NICU until about 10 minutes before we were discharged. They gave me the option to stay and room in with her one night, but all I could think about was all of us getting home and her big brother finally getting to touch her and not have a wall of glass between him and his sister.

Scout decided that we needed just a tad more drama and didn't want to be any less dramatic than her brother. We requested an EKG to rule out the heart defect that her older brother has. The EKG ruled that out. The the doctor said BUT...as in but we found something else that concerns us. There was concern over a part of her heartbeat called the QT wave. Thanks to Kale, we are familiar with what the QT wave of a heartbeat is. Scout had a long QT wave in her EKG. They told us that most times when this is found at birth, an EKG a week later will show that it has resolved itself. Apparently Scout just wanted to make sure that her parents were on their toes...because a week later, she had a clean EKG.

That is Scout's birth story. Her first two weeks of life were another fun adventure and definitely not your average newborn's first two weeks. More on that later...

Rambling

2011-07-17T23:59:00.000-05:00

There is so much on my mind tonight. This is just a ramble. Sorry about that.

My poor brain won't slow down. Job hunt, frustration with someone who won't take time to listen, hurt because I am tired of going in this circle, fear that this will keep happening, sick of trying to explain something that I am starting to believe can only be understood by experiencing it, considering turning tables, knowing that a reduction in pay is worth it but that it will be an adjustment, trusting God to do what He does best--lead me and provide me the right opportunity in His perfect timing and trying to be patient with that process. Simply overcome with love for my kids, even when one of them makes me wonder if I will survive raising him. Maybe I just need a good cry.

I really want to write tonight about Scout's birth, but its nearly midnight and I need to go to bed instead. I need to write about it soon, before I start "losing" the details.

Scout's Name

2011-07-15T21:47:00.000-05:00

Many people have asked where we came up with Scout's name. Some simply assume its from the book, "To Kill a Mockingbird". Although my husband and I both like that book and I thoroughly relate to the characteristics (intelligent, thoughtful, confident, fights with boys, and is essentially a tomboy) of the Scout character in that book, that is not where her name originated.

While my husband was attending training for 16 weeks, I needed a weekly gut check. It would have been easy to feel sorry for myself...pregnant, juggling a 3 year old, trying to sell a house, and only seeing my husband 48 hours each week. I kept reminding myself that military spouses have it soooo much worse. Then God supported my gut check by sending a tv show my way. Its called "Coming Home" on Lifetime. Its about the homecoming and reunification, often a surprise, of military families. There wasn't one week that I watched it with a dry eyes. The week two episode rang true even more for me. Sure, my husband was absent 5 days a week and missing the last half of my pregnancy. However, he was around some and would be there for his daughter's birth. The week two episode featured a father who would be returning from a year long deployment and meeting his 2.5 month old daughter for the first time. He had essentially missed all of his wife's pregnancy and even his daughter's birth. I bawled. The baby, a little girl with fair skin and dark hair, was named Scout. The name rang out to me. I knew my husband would either love it or hate it. He loved it. He loved it so much that week after week, he let me know it was still his favorite until he finally told me that I would have a hard time getting him to agree to naming her anything other than Scout. I realized then how much he truly did love that name. I also realized how much I loved the idea him being so steadfast about her name. I wasn't going to mess with that. So, we named her Scout Gracyn Fletcher.

The middle name...it was one that was on the list of first names at some point. After we settled on Scout, we threw around a few middle names. I wanted her to have something different, yet feminine. We also toyed with a middle name that has a little bit of meaning to us. It all boiled down to the morning she was born. On the way to the hospital, we were dropping her brother off at school so he could have his normal routine until it was time for him to meet his sister. As we drove, I asked him which name he liked: Gracyn or the other name. He very boldly and frankly said "Gracyn! I like that name!" and there you have it, that is how she got her middle name.

The defined meaning of the name Scout depends on which source you prefer. Some will tell you it means "listener" while others will tell you it means "observer".

Want to see the little one that our Scout is named after? You can see her in two places...
Here: The blog of Scout's mom
and Here: Pic of Scout

It was only after I had Scout did I realize all their physical similarities...I went to the web searching for photos of her and found those listed above...and was simply brought to tears.

What I don't recommend...

2011-07-03T11:27:00.000-05:00

Wow, this blog has been quiet huh? I wonder why? Oh, I know why. For the past 6 months or so, my life felt like its more of a secret than open like usual. I don't normally keep too many secrets about myself. So, when I go quiet, its a signal that something is up. And oh, things have been up alright! The following is what has been going on and what I really don't recommend doing...

I will do individual "posts" on some of these events, but I am just going to lay it out here in bullets:

In January, my husband started a law enforcement academy. This entailed 16 weeks of him leaving the house on Sunday evening and not returning until Friday afternoon. Thankfully, he was able to call most nights to talk to Kale and check on me. I was 20 weeks pregnant when he started the academy.
We put our house up for sale. We knew there was a small chance we would be "placed" in Pulaski county, but we also knew there was a greater chance we would be moved to an adjacent county or even further away. Ever tried to be 20+ weeks pregnant, chase a 3 year old, work full time, and keep a house "show worthy" on a daily basis? I do NOT recommend it. Thankfully, my mom came running anytime I needed her help. Between the help of my mom and watching a show on Lifetime called "Coming Home", I kept my sanity (mom) and perspective (show).
Somewhere in here, we started packing. Part of our stuff went to storage. Our house was 2000+ sq ft and we were pretty certain that our next place might not be that big. Ever tried to pack a house and still live in it for an undetermined amount of time? I don't recommend that either!
The first week of April, my blood pressure started climbing. Given my experience in my last pregnancy, my doctor sent me home on bed rest. He thankfully allowed me to work 4 hours each day from home and my employer agreed. However, that four hours was either from the bed, couch, or chair with my feet propped up. I started going to the doctor weekly, getting to pee in a jug for 24 hours each week, and visited the hospital for a short (4 hours or 12 hours) stay three different times over the next 7 weeks. Doc let me know that one little hint that I wasn't following my strict orders and my tail would be confined to the hospital. I played by the rules. This is pretty much where I took my mom hostage Sunday night through Friday afternoon.
My husband got his first assignment (location) and his graduation was nearing. He was headed to Sebastian county. Our house still had not sold. I had a baby to birth in Little Rock (not changing docs or hospitals). His graduation was April 28th. He reported for duty in Sebastian county on May 1. The rest of us were still in Little Rock. I fully took my mom hostage.
We got a date. After almost 38 weeks of carefully growing our little girl, it was decided that she would arrive via c-section on May 17th and be full term. Yay!
Scout Gracyn Fletcher was born at 1:23pm on May 17th at 8lbs and 5oz. She was 20 inches long. Her daddy watched as they pulled her out of me, just like he did with her big brother. The next thing I know, my little girl is looking over the top of the drape at me (thank you Dr Breniman for doing that!) before she was whisked away to get cleaned up. After several minutes went by without them bringing her to me, I knew something was wrong. Scout had managed to get some fluid in/around her lungs and the nurses weren't happy with how her breathing sounded. So, to ensure her entry into the world was dramatic like her big brother's, off to the NICU she went. We kept her NICU room quiet and visitor free to let her rest and heal. The only person in our family who saw her on her day of birth was her big brother. Everyone else had to wait. Its not easy explaining to your family that they have to wait yet another day to meet a new baby, but my husband did a marvelous job of managing that task. An EKG was done on Scout to eliminate her having the same heart condition as her brother. She does NOT have WPW. However, she showed the doc that she had a long QT wave at the time, so that resulted in a follow up EKG and cardiologist visit. Scout recovered quickly from her lung situation and was released to my hospital room about 10 minutes before we all left the hospital. We had spent 30-60 minute blocks of time with her in the NICU. This straight from NICU to home thing came back to haunt me.
Scout came home, her brother finally got to touch her instead of just look at her, and all was well for a few hours. Then mommy promptly started falling apart. Call it what you will, but I believe it was a small case of post traumatic stress combined with postpartum emotions and hormones. I was completely bombarded by anxiety, fear, and emotions. I stopped being able to keep food in my body. It was a very rough few days.
We took Scout to the pediatrician on Monday and got a clean bill of health. We took her to get her follow up EKG on Tuesday and waited to hear back on that.
On Wednesday, I managed to get an appt with my doc to get control over whatever was going on in my body. On our way there, with Kale and Scout in the truck with us, we got rear ended in my mom's Yukon. Traffic was stopped. We stopped. The car behind us did not and was pretty much totaled. The Yukon stood up like a concrete wall and that amazed me. I still look at the back of my mom's truck in amazement. We eventually made it to the doctor. I told the nurse that maybe the accident would snap me out of whatever was going on within my body. Apparently, I was right. That evening, I was starting to feel better and it was all uphill from there.
Somewhere along the way, we came to the decision that we were not going to continue living in two separate places after Scout was born. So, pretty much for the week following me/Scout coming home from the hospital, our house was being packed. We had some generous help from family and a few close friends. By the Friday that Scout was 10 days old, our house was empty and the keys were handed over to our renters. I don't recommend having a baby and moving all in 10 days either.
We arrived at our rental house in Greenwood and it took us all of a week to decide that a 1400 sq ft house is not big enough for these four Fletchers! Yet, here we are. The unpacking commenced and is still ongoing.
Somewhere in the moving madness, one of us got strep. Scout is the only one who escaped it. I don't ever recommend getting strep, but I REALLY don't recommend getting it on the backside of having a baby and moving.
It didn't take long for Kale to be sick of his mommy 24/7. Each day he would ask me "mommy, what are we going to do here today"? He didn't quite understand or like the reply of "Kale, its hotter than hades outside and you have a newborn sister...we aren't doing much besides taking care of your sister, playing with toys, and watching tv." He kept begging to go outside. That is when I started looking at summer daycare options. He has been enrolled now for 2 weeks and it is working out well so far. He gets to play with kids his age and not hear me telling him no constantly. I get to keep what little sanity I have left.
I have quietly started looking for work here. As of Friday, my employer now knows I have moved and will not be returning from maternity leave (unless they let me work remotely, which I doubt). I actually had a job interview last week. Notifying my current employer was what required all of the chaos above to be kept quiet as it was ongoing. I didn't feel comfortable with the stability of my job situation and wanted to be sure that I would have my maternity leave.

All that said, I don't recommend doing all that the way we did it. But we did. And we survived. And it didn't kill us.

Another trip

2011-05-09T23:29:00.000-05:00

Well, that makes my third trip to labor/delivery due to doctor's orders. Thankfully, since it didn't result in a delivery, it was my shortest visit yet.

I've been to the clinic and l/d enough times that the nurses and staff all seem to know me.

My bp had been up for two days, but just an hour at the hospital calmed that down. They processed my labs, which looked good. So, home was my destination.

Maybe we will make that scheduled date after all.

36 weeks and then some

2011-05-03T12:27:00.000-05:00

I saw the doc again yesterday. I got to once again walk into the clinic carrying my 24 hour jug 'o pee. Yes, lovely, I know. My bp, which had been up all morning, suddenly decided to drop a bit since I was at the doc's office. I suppose my body knows when to be on its best behavior? There was protein in the small sample I give them every time they see me, but they decided to wait until they get my 24 hour jug results back from the lab before making any decisions. So, they sent me home.

I had a conversation with the doc about the delivery of sassy pants. Its pretty obvious to me that its going to be a c-section at this point. I am ok with that. However, I wanted to know if we were past the point in this pregnancy where sassy pants would automatically have to go to the NICU after birth--which is what happened when I had Kale. He was so early that it didn't matter how well he was doing on his own, he was going to the NICU. Thankfully, we have passed that point with sassy pants. Unless there are some unforeseen complications, she will be able to hang out with us in the OR and recovery and then go back to my room with me. This made me nearly jump off the table and hug the doc, but I was sans pants so I stayed put.

I am hoping that sassy pants can come to my room with us and have some bonding time with just her mommy, daddy, and big brother for a little while. We need and deserve that time as a family at this point. When we are settled, stable, and ready...we will allow visitors into the room to meet sassy pants.

It won't surprise me one bit to get a call today from the doc telling me to head on to the hospital. Of course, it seems every time I think they may send me there, they don't and vice versa. So, who knows. I have made it past my 36 week goal and surpassed what I think the doc thought I would do several weeks ago. I believe he truly thought we were headed down the same path as we did with Kale. Thanks be to God, that wasn't the case. I learned my lesson and have followed the rules better this time around. I remind myself that I am sick, even though I don't feel it. I remind myself not to feel guilty for laying on my tail while the world goes on around me and other people take care of things that I want to/should be doing myself. The support of our extended family and some close friends have been helpful beyond words. I have been the one responsible for making good choices and carrying sassy pants this far into the pregnancy, but I could not have done it without the help and prayers of so many others.

And now, we wait....

Is the heater broken?

2011-04-22T13:56:00.000-05:00

I haven't turned the heater on much lately, despite mornings of it being 61-65 degrees in our house. However, yesterday morning, it was 63 and the sun was refusing to shine. I decided to turn on the heat to warm the house up to 65-66 degrees (which feels like a heat wave to me, but keeps everyone else mostly thawed out). I turned it on, heard the click of the heater starting, and then nothing...no warm air.

My mom gave it a try. Nothing. I took the batteries out of the thermostat and put them back in...nothing. I knew the batteries had just been replaced in the past week, so dead batteries wasn't the problem. I started getting frustrated. I got in touch with my husband and he told me to call the heat/air company for them to come check it out.

The heat/air guy showed up within a few hours and discovered the problem, although he wasn't sure who caused the problem. For a mere $86 service call, he let me know that the problem was the gas had been shut off at the unit by the switch. There is a lever on the gas line that runs to the unit (right beside it and very near the ground) and the lever had been switched to not allow the gas to flow through the line. Hmmm, I just wonder who might have touched that lever? I know I sure didn't and that the last thing my mom or husband would do would be sabotage any opportunity to have the heat on during cold mornings/days. So, that leaves one culprit. Yep, for $86 I found out that my son had turned off the gas to our heat/air unit...when he has been told several times not to mess with the heat/air unit.

I don't remember doing such things when I was little or hearing stories of me doing such things. So, my guess is that this is just more proof that Kale is his daddy's boy and is following in his footsteps because I do know I have heard similar stories about his daddy's shenanigans. We are in deep trouble!

Another Dr Visit and May

2011-04-21T20:50:00.000-05:00

So, today was Thursday and a trip to visit the doctor. I didn't see my regular doc because he had some kind of emergency. The doc who checked me out decided to skip the NST (non-stress test), which was fine with me. I had one on Monday and the sassy pants did perfect.

Today, my bp was so low that I blurted out "wow, thats awesome!", which got the nurses attention. She decided to take my bp on my other arm just to be sure...it wasn't quite so low on that arm, but it was still in good range! Then I saw the doc, who measured my belly and listened to the sassy pant's heartbeat. All was well and he sent me on my way.

Not a lot to share about the appointment today, and that is definitely how I like it.

My current goal is to keep growing sassy pants to 36 weeks. That means growing her for at least 8 more days. If I can get to 37 without my body going bonkers, that would be full term and be even more wonderful.

My husband and I have both been living by a mantra that a friend taught me 10 years ago as I struggled through a transition. He told me to take it one day at a time and to keep myself focused on that goal with this mantra: "If I make it through today, I can make it until May."

Ten years ago, I made it to May. I am determined to do it again, albeit for a much more important reason. My husband is going to make his May goal as well. Who knew that such a simple statement from a friend would be so helpful not once, but twice and that my husband would benefit from it as well. Funny how God works.

Monday Doc Appointment

2011-04-18T18:42:00.001-05:00

I had another doc appointment today. For once, my bp behaved while I was there. That was the good news.

The doc is fairly sure that I am starting to show more than a trace of protein in my urine (sorry, no ungross way to say that). They sent off the 24 hour jug to the lab and I probably won't know anything on that until Wednesday morning. I asked what would happen if they found protein in my urine jig and they said they weren't sure yet. I guess or depends on what they find and also how much they find.

The great news is that sassy pants is doing just fine. They hooked me up for 20 minutes to a monitor (NST) for her heartbeat and movement. It didn't take but minute or so for her to find the straps around my belly and start pushing on them with her legs, knees, and feet. She likes her space and for people/things to stay out of her space. Yes, she is our child for sure!

I go back on Thursday for another NST and for them to check my bp and urine.

Good Idea

2011-04-17T21:34:00.001-05:00

Kale was asking some questions about his baby sister. He wanted to know what she is doing. I told him that she is just growing. He asked if she was "wewaxin" (relaxing). I laughed and said yes.

Then he made a comment about her being a boy. I told him that she will be a girl...he will be my boy and she will be my girl.

His reply? Mommy, I think that is a good idea.

Me too Kale, me too!

The TorMado

2011-04-17T21:34:00.000-05:00

Late Thursday night, severe weather was headed our way. Thursday night shifted into Friday morning as I watched the severe weather approach. I woke my mom up and had her bring a very confused and still mostly asleep Kale to my bed. She then crawled in with us. The tornado threat had seemingly diminished and the biggest threat was straight line winds, but they were expected to be 60-80mph as they moved through our area. Yikes!

As the storms closed in, a tornado warning was suddenly issued for several different locations along the stomr line. One of those areas was ours and we were smack in the middle of the area of concern. I asked my mom if she could move fast. She headed to get her shoes, some shoes for Kale, and then came back to grab him out of my bed. He was one confused little boy at that point.

We were quite the spectable as we made our way out onto our deck to take shelter in our room under the house. We got drenched. My mom was carrying Kale, who was crying because he was getting wet. The wind was going crazy. The rain was pouring down. We made our way down the deck stairs...me 8+ months pregnant and all.

When we decided the rough part of the storm had passsed, we made our way back upstairs. As we came inside, Kale asked what was the noise he heard. I told him it was the tornado siren, which was still going off at the time for other storms in the area which were not a threat to us. He was ready to crawl back into bed with me and go to sleep...and I was ready for some sleep as well, given that it was 3am!

The next morning, I heard Kale having a conversation with my mom. He said something about the tormado siren. I heard him...tormado...not tornado. Then, I nearly fell out of bed laughing as I heard him tell her that he could show her a tormado. He took her to the kitchen counter and pointed to the tomato on the counter. He then told her that the tormado siren was for that tormado...and pointed to the tomato on the counter.

So, the next time your local tornado siren goes off, take cover...but watch out for those tomatoes!!!

Reality

2011-04-14T10:28:00.000-05:00

The reality of my daily life right now is not appealing, although I am VERY aware that it could be so much worse.

This is my 10th day of being on home bed rest. Yesterday, I stepped out on the front porch for about 3 minutes. I am doing my best to be more careful and cautious (read: stricter with myself) this time around. Its hard to keep laying on your hiney when you feel there is so much that you need to be doing around the house. I just have to remind myself what is more important...cooking this baby longer or getting that stuff done? Yeah, I will go with cooking the baby. There is still a weird sense of guilt that hovers around me though, as I watch my mom taking care of so many things that my brain says I should be doing.

When the doctor mentioned the onset of pre-eclampsia on Tuesday, there was a small section of my brain that still said...maybe not? God took care of that doubt for me yesterday. I made some poor food choices yesterday and my bp reacted to that. It was up most of the day, but not to the new level that would require a hospital visit or phone call to my doctor. I won't lie...it did inch close a few times. I did what I was supposed to do...laid down on my left side and chilled out, which resulted in a 2 hour nap. So, now I am on board with the doc's diagnosis. Not only am I tired from just the reality of growing a baby, but I am also dealing with pre-e.

I am also coming to terms with the fact that a repeat c-section is most likely in my future. I am thankful for an online conversation with a good friend yesterday. She is a former L&D (labor/delivery) nurse and I have known her since we were about 7 years old when she walked into our class and stole the heart of every boy there! Anyway, she shared her helpful point of view and answered some questions--that really helped and I am thankful for her support and conversation. One of the biggest struggles I had with the delivery of Kale is wondering if I had made the right choices or asked the right questions. The whole experience left me feeling like I had been completely unprepared for the road we took. I just did whatever the doc's and nurses's said. I didn't ask a lot of questions and felt completely out of control with what wa happening to my body. I know God was watching over us all and that it turned out fine, but the wonder and guilt lasted in my head for quite a while. Part of that problem was not realizing how sick I was at the time. I was truly on a "see as we go" type of path and I had no idea how it would all turn out. This time, through my entire pregnancy, I have asked more questions. My doc has talked to me about different paths that we might take. So, I am arming myself with a new set of questions for him next week, since I now know that a c-section is my most likely path.

So, this is my reality right now. A lot of sitting and laying. I don't watch a lot of tv during the day. I am working 4 hours each day from home on my computer with my feet propped up on the couch or the ottoman. I am sick of just about every type of food we have in this house. My hospital bag is slowly coming together...ok, its more of a hospital pile at the moment. I keep the thermostat on 65-67 and my mom/husband think I am trying to freeze them to death. Then they will feel my hands or feet and realize that I am still sweating. Fun stuff!

I am so ready to meet this tough little girl growing inside me. However, I am not so anxious to meet her for the next few weeks (at least)! I wonder about her daily--what color will her eyes be and what color will her hair be? My biggest prayer is that when they pull her out of me, she screams at all of us just like her big brother did when he was born. We don't have one single birth picture of him where he isn't either screaming or puckering up his lips in a pout. I also hope and pray that she will be big and strong enough to completely avoid the NICU. One of the biggest concerns with early delivery is lung maturity. Oh, and I also wonder what her name will be, because we have yet to decide on that! We have a working list that we narrowed down some recently...but we are still undecided about her name.

If you are wondering about specific prayer requests, here they are:

My blood pressure to stay down and for me to monitor it closely enough to do the right things if it starts creeping up.
The protein stays out of my urine. I can't do anything to prevent or control this. I am pretty sure if protein shows up in my urine, my new home will be the hospital until delivery.
That baby girl continues to grow and thrive as long as possible in my belly.
That I don't go stir crazy from all the sitting/laying all day long.
That my husband is able to focus on his training and not be distracted by worrying about me and baby girl (or Kale).

33 weeks

2011-04-12T21:59:00.000-05:00

I had my doctor's appt today. There was good news and not so good news.

The good news: I get to stay on bed rest at home. Last week, that wouldn't seem like good news, but as opposed to hospital bed rest, this is good news. I am able to work from my computer at home for up to four hours each day, which is a blessing. TMI alert...don't read the next sentence if you don't want to know about my urine. They test my urine at each appt and once again, there was no protein in my urine, which is great news!

The bad news: my blood pressure (bp) was 140/90 at the doctor's office. The doctor said the dreaded sentence: this is the onset of pre-eclampsia (which is the same thing I had with Kale).

For a few minutes, I really thought I was going to be hospitalized today. Instead, my doc told me that if I kept closely monitoring my bp and such, then I could stay at home for now. I am pretty sure that if I end up with protein in the wrong place, that will be when I am put in the hospital....or if my bp goes over 155/95, which is the new magical number.

The final chat that I had with my doc went like this.
Me: I will be happy if I can make it to 36 weeks
Doc: I will be happy if you make it to 35 weeks

For the record, today I am 33 week and 4 days.

This means it is very likely that I will have a repeat c-section. I have been hoping for a vbac (baby coming into the world on the normal route, not through an incision in my belly, despite there previously being an incision there). However, I can not be induced (previous c-section prevents this) and will most likely need to deliver early....so a c-section is most likey for me now. I am ok with that and have tried to keep an open mind to all options this time around.

I left the doc's office with an appt for next week (meaning I am now going to be seeing him weekly), a urine collection jug to bring with me after "collecting" for 24 hours prior to my appt, and also an appt for a NST (non stress test) where they will just monitor the baby for a while to make sure she is moving around and being active enough and not in any distress. There is no reason to think she is distress right now, so nobody should worry about that. This is just standard for my situation right now. They did this with Kale. He never showed one sign of distress (on the NST or anytime he was monitored after my hospitalization). I am hoping that his sister completely ignores the chaos going on in my body as well!

Kale and the Humidifier

2011-04-10T21:30:00.000-05:00

So, one of the items I scored for cheap a few weeks ago was a vaporizer for Kale's room. He is congested tonight, so we have decided to see how well the vaporizer helps.

Kale saw Mema come in with the box and asked what it was. Of course, he HAD to know what was in the box. We told him it was a humidifier. No matter how many times we told him it wasn't a toy, he was bound and determined to inspect it to be sure.

So, as Mema sat there reading the instructions, Kale informed us that he wanted to plug it in and watch it shoot fire. It took me a minute to figure out why he thought it would shoot fire. It took a few more moments for Mema to catch on. Have you figured it out yet?

Come on....its a humidifier....which sounds a lot like humidiFIRE to a 3 year old who can't spell! He took one look at the top of the humidifier/vaporizer, saw the openings for the steam, and deducted that the fire MUST come out there!

32 weeks

2011-04-05T21:16:00.000-05:00

I am writing this mostly for me...so I can look back at it in the future, if I so wish. However, it can also help bring you up to speed on me and what is going on in my pregnancy right now.

The good news is that I am past the 32 week point in my pregnancy.

At this point in my pregnancy with Kale, I was on full bed rest at home. I later flunked home bed rest and was grounded to the hospital for 3 days before my body told the doctors that it was time to deliver. Kale never showed any signs of distress and the ultrasound completed 3 days before he was born showed he weighed 4lbs, 11oz. The reason he was born at 33 weeks and 6 days was because my blood pressure continued upward and the protein in my body was showing up in places it shouldn't. It wasn't a matter of if my liver would start to have issues or if I would have a stroke or seizure, it was a matter of when. So, Kale was born when the doctors felt they could no longer wait and put me at any higher risk.

So, back to now. I started swelling in my right foot and lower right leg over a week ago. However, the doctor was not that concerned with the swelling simply because it is no longer considered a key indicator of pre-e (what I had with Kale). I was told to keep taking my blood pressure (bp) at home and go to the hospital if I got a reading of 140/90 or higher. Over the weekend, I was aware that the top number on my blood pressure was rising and was over 140 at times. My lower bp number was fine though, so I stayed put.

On Monday, I had taken a vacation day. I wouldn't exactly call the day my idea of a vacation day. I woke up and knew something was not quite right. It was strorming and I was hoping that after the storms passed, the pressure in my head would lighten. I took my bp and the reading was higher than 140/90. Ugh. What happened next was a typical me response. I eventually took Kale to school and went to the hospital for a tour since I hadn't yet seen the new labor/delivery wing. While I was there, I asked if they could take my bp. Since I was not a patient, they were not allowed and they told me to call my doc. My doc said I could come by to have a nurse check my bp. I went there, they checked my bp....and sent me right back to the hospital for observation.

I spent 4 hours being observed. They took blood, tested my urine, and took my bp every someodd minutes. Each reading went lower and lower. During that four hours, I made the most of my time. I rested. I also made a mental list of what I needed to do in the event I go on bed rest. At the top of the list is get my hospital stuff together for me and for baby girl....

When I left the hospital, I got to take a jug with me to collect urine. Fun stuff. Or not. At least it was only a 12 hour collection and not a 24 hour one. Its the little things! They told me to take it to my doctor in the morning (Tuesday). So that is what I did. I was hoping I could go to work from there...nope. They sent me home on bed rest until they get my labs back. My intial reaction was to just look at the nurse and say a quiet Nooooooo. She promptly looked at me and told me Yes and that she wasn't above tanning my backside if I didn't follow directions. She knows how everything went last time and has a pretty good grip on me and my tendencies. I told her "yes ma'am" and headed home. Ok, I ran two errands before heading home.

I am hoping that tomorrow they will release me and let me return to work and just take it easy until I go in for my next appointment (next week).

So...that is 32 weeks. One good thing I learned yesterday was that the ultrasound estimates that baby girl already weighs 4lbs, 13oz. That is 2oz more than her big brother weighed at birth. However, the estimate can be off up to 12oz, so she could be as small as 4lbs, 1oz or as big as 5lbs, 9oz. They were on target with Kale's estimate, so I am just going with the idea that they are on target for baby girl as well.

Pics of Kale

2011-03-04T09:50:00.000-06:00

Random recent pics of Kale snapped with my phone...you would think he actually knows what is headed his way in the form of his little sister from the poses in a couple of these...

...our little lefty in action

Gratitude

2011-03-01T15:05:00.000-06:00

This one goes out to my mom. There are a lot of people who have been looking out for us, especially over the past 6 months and I am grateful to them for any and all help they have provided to us. However, I am especially grateful to my mom.

I can't tell you how many times I have taken her hostage. Today, I took her hostage again.

Before I get going, I should explain that I missed work last week in Thurs and Fri due to being sick. I worked from home on Monday to avoid sharing my fun junk.

Back to taking mom hostage. It started at the unreal hour of 3:30am. I woke up next to a very, very warm little boy. After a short struggle and him telling me that he was not going to give me any treats, he let me take his temperature. I told him that I didn't want any treats and that I just wanted to see what his current roasting level was. He also cracked one eye open at me when I said that. The thermometer revealed the damage. 101 and some change. Great.

I wasn't worried about missing work, but I was worried about missing my doctor appt at 9:30am. I couldn't take a feverish child to daycare and I sure didn't need to be taking him to an OBGYN clinic that is usually hopping with pregnant women. I knew his daddy was out of the question due to mandatory training. Anybody want to take care of my sick child so I can go to the baby doctor?

I debated it for about 2 minutes, and then called my mom. Most mom's would have hung up on me when I said that nobody was dead or hurt. She didn't. She listened. Then she told me to call her back at 6am. I set my alarm and finally drifted back to sleep around 5am.

At 6am, the alarm went off and I called her as promised. She answered and let me know that she was already on her way here. I nearly cried, but was too sleepy. I whispered a thank you and crashed back to sleep.

By 8:30am, Kale was awake and watching tv while I got dressed. As my mom's dog ran into the room, Kale simultaneously said "who is that" and literally jumped out of bed and ran down the hall. In the first 90 seconds of seeing her, I heard him say three things:

Where is Pawpaw?
I love you Mema!
Thank you for coming to see me!

I could pretend that she came just because of me. I would be half right. She came for both of us. I will be eternally grateful for my mom's love and giving heart. I will never in this lifetime be able to repay her for all the times she has come running whenever I called, regardless of the reason. When I was younger and had the mixture of an out of control mouth and teenage angst, I used to tell her that I would never be like her and I would be such a better mom. With age comes wisdom. Its true that I will probably never be like her. I don't know of many mom's like her. I also know I will never be a better mom than her. I can try and maybe I will excel in some areas she didn't....but I know I will also fail in areas she didn't. I can't say it enough, how thankful I am for her loving, caring, and generous heart.

If you are one of those who have helped us over the past several months or just even offered to help, please don't take this as an insult or ungratefulness by comparison. Not my intention at all. I am just overly thankful for my momma. There is nobody quite like her in my world. I just wanted to shout that out for public knowledge.

THANKS MOM! (for all you have already done and for all you will do....)

Observations

2011-02-23T11:20:00.000-06:00

Here are some random observations from the land of Fletcherville....

Kale said "something" this morning. He didn't say "sunkin", he said "something".

Last week, Kale still called toothpaste...pooftaste. It sounds so funny and I laughed so hard that I nearly peed myself. I guess I got what was coming to me for laughing.

Sneezing is not a pregnant woman's friend.

Kale doesn't like policemen. Not quite sure how that is going to fit in with his daddy's new profession...

If its loud, Kale doesn't like it. Fire trucks, police cars, ambulances...they all scare him because he thinks the siren could start sounding at any given moment. This may be part of the reason he doesn't like policemen.

Kale starts in his own bed at night. By morning, he is comfortable in our bed. For some reason, no matter how far I push him back towards the middle or his daddy's side of the bed....within a nanosecond he is once again trying to sleep right next to me. He is a cuddler by nature, but only when he is sleeping! He won't stay still long enough to cuddle when he is awake.

He thinks the postman is amazing because he keeps delivering new dvd's to Kale...even though I tell him that Mema ordered them for him, he still thinks they come from the postman. Its so bad that he now asks if any of the mail is for him.

I am pretty sure that the fedex/ups man knows I am pregnant or thinks we have a new baby already. So far, they have delivered about 10 boxes of diapers. I have one more box on the way. If Amazon gets Huggies back in stock, I will have probably another 5 more boxes coming. Nothing like paying .07, .51, or .66 for an entire box of diapers! (yes mom, the deal got even better!)

I don't remember the last time that there were so many "things" that affected me that were so out of my control or influence. Oh wait, yes I do. It was the last time I was pregnant. Hmmmm, starting to make a connection here....

I choose to see all these "things" that are affecting me without my control or influence to be reminders from God that He is in control, not me. My daily ability to cope with this and have the right attitude does fluctuate though. I could blame that on pregnancy emotions and hormones, but the reality is that its just because I am who God made me.

Photos from recent snow days (2 storms: one little, one big!)

2011-02-10T20:58:00.000-06:00

No nap + pushing a dump truck about a mile in an inch of snow = passed out!

This was the first time he has ever just sacked out on us like this!

Snow and God's lesson

2011-02-10T12:11:00.000-06:00

It snowed. It snowed a lot. We ended up with about 7 inches of snow at our house. The neighbors tried to sled with Kale yesterday, but the snow is too deep with not enough kids around to pack it down. The snow comes up to Kale's knees. We are a sight as we try to navigate around the yard...Kale with snow up to his knees and the confinement of a snowsuit....me being 6 months pregnant and trying to keep my footing in the snow and keep Kale upright. Good thing aren't at my in-laws house in the northwest corner of the state because the snow would be up to Kale's armpits up there!

Now that I have documented the snow...on to the God's lesson thing:

Before going to far into this next ramble, I should note this: my entire relationship and eventual marriage with Ep has been God's constant reminder that God is in control (not me) and that He truly has a sense of humor. I am certain that my husband would whole-heartedly agree with me...and say the same is true from his side of the relationship as well (especially since God "blessed" him with a smart, stubborn, questioning, strong-willed, and opinionated wife who will tell him exactly what is on her mind).

God is in the process of once again proving to me that I should never say never and that God can put a deep love in my heart that is beyond my comprehension. My dad was a police officer while I was growing up. He has long since retired. Well, from that job anyway. As I got older, I swore I would not marry a man who had any aspirations to become a gun toting officer of any kind. In fact, back before I met my husband I was once asked on a date by a nice guy who I knew had ambitions of being a police officer...so I turned him down simply on that fact. Right now, my father in law is probably laughing because he can see where this is going. My mom may be as well. See, I just didn't want the worry that comes with being the wife of an officer. I also didn't want my kids to know the worry of being an officer's child.

Well, here we are. My husband was issued his gun last week. By the time this baby growing in my belly arrives, her daddy will be a commissioned officer carrying a gun. I still haven't been told that I can say where and what he will be doing as he carries that gun, so I won't. I will say this. I whole-heartedly support my husband is his new career. I can't think of a more perfect job for him. That is the truth. The way I see it, God just waited until my heart was beyond full of love for my husband before He let us know the true career path He had in mind for my husband. So, yes, God once again has proved the "never say never" to me!

Quizno's Prime Rib Sub $2.99

2011-02-08T14:40:00.000-06:00

Ok, here is a yummy food coupon. With this coupon, for $2.99 you can grab a great prime rib sub from Quizno's. Print...go to Quizno's....Enjoy!!!

Save during Cold/Flu season

2011-02-07T11:00:00.001-06:00

Robitussin has a $1 coupon that you can print! It is no secret that when I find a good coupon that I can match with a good sale, I will stock up and save! I don't yet know of a good sale for Robitussin, but I do know a good coupon when I find it!

I wanted to share in this post, but the link would not work, so I just posted it to the top of my blog page. Look up at the top of my blog, under the Fletcherville sign....click on the Robitussin sign.
Go print yours now before this coupon disapears!!! I will let you know if I come across a good sale to combine with this coupon!

In my place

2011-02-03T16:19:00.000-06:00

In case you are wondering, I have been put in my place. By my three year old. Lovely.

I originally had some plans to take care of some very important stuff (read: get something done for my husband) on Monday night. So, on Sunday night I asked Mema if she would pick up Kale from school on Monday afternoon. She proceeded to tell Kale that she would take him to dinner. He told her that he would want steak.

Monday afternoon rolled around and my plans changed (read: hubby said nevermind). I called to let Mema know I could pick up Kale from school. She told me to bring him home, but that then we would all go out to eat. The problem was, we didn't run this by the household tyrant (Kale). Yes, I just called him a tyrant. I am sure he will need therapy for that someday (like he wasn't going to need it with me as his mom anyway???).

The tyrant was NOT happy to see me when I picked him up from school. He immediately poked out his bottom lip and started crying. I was told that he wanted his Mema to pick him up and he wanted steak. He finally calmed down after I broked the news that Mema had a surprise for him at home and still planned to take him for steak. This was put in my place event #1.

We got home and he asked Mema for his surprise (coloring book). The next comment had to do with steak. We tried to convince him to go with something closer because it was just yucky out (foggy and misting). Nope. He wanted steak. Tyrant. He also choose that moment to let me know that I was staying home and it was just him and Mema going for steak. Let's call that put in my place event #2.

We eventually convinced him that if he wanted Mema to sit with him in the backseat, then he needed to let me come so that I could drive. Put in my place event #3.

We ended up at Outback. My dad called while we were at dinner and he seemd pretty convinced that I put Kale up to the whole thing. Nope. The little tyrant managed this one all on his own...and yet again proved that he is the offspring of his parents (me: getting what he wanted, daddy: $teak!). While we were there, he gave Mema a couple of hugs. He told her that only she could have them and she was his best friend (oh, the charm of his daddy at work!). He also made sure to let me know that Mema was his best friend and that he didn't have any hugs for me. Put in my place #4.

I can only shake my head in a combination of humor and fear, for I have truly been put in my place.

Kale and his sister's first fight

2011-01-25T15:13:00.000-06:00

Kale and his sister had thier first fight. Have I mentioned that his sister is still growing inside my belly? Yes, they fought, they just didn't know it. As this happened somewhere between 5-6am, I am pretty sure God woke me up just to give me a preview of what is to come my way.

Kale likes to sleep with his feet resting on my upper thighs when I am facing him in our bed. Yes, he still crawls into our bed sometime during the night. Anyway, back to his feet. He was still quite asleep but his feet here searching for just the right location on my legs. He will dig and squirm them into just the right spot that he deems comfortable. In the meantime, baby girl started doing gymnastics in my lower belly. My lower belly is becoming larger and there was only a small amount of space between my lower belly and upper thights (my legs were bent at the hips and knees). Kale started wiggling his toes and feet in that small space. Let the fighting begin. He would wiggle my lower belly. She would punch/kick/something back. There wasn't a ryhthm to it and it wasn't always an instantaneous response...but it was enough to make me laugh.

Oh, what we are in for....

From the world of Kale

2011-01-07T16:47:00.000-06:00

Recent comments from the world of Kale:

While still in bed, he said "Mema, you forgot me in bed!" In his little world, why else would she have left him sleeping in bed while she went on with her morning? I mean, really? She must have forgotten him!

We have been explaining to Kale that his daddy is about to start some training at a school and also telling him what his job title will be. Kale has decided that he will go to his own school and train to be the same thing: a wild offerfer. I will let you ponder that job title for a while. One thing is for sure, he has the wild part right and doens't need any additional training for that aspect!

I want(ed) to be an ostrich

2011-01-07T16:46:00.000-06:00

Started this a couple of days ago...just now finishing and publishing...

Just for today, I want to be an ostrich. I want to stick my head in a hole and just not think or see anything. I know its a terrible attitude to have, but at the moment I am just feeling very overwhelmed. As usual, there are a lot of if/and/buts floating around in our family. I am not complaining about that. I am thankful for the blessings that have put us in these if/and/but situations. Its just that today, for one day, I am overwhelmed with it all. Oh and then you can throw in the overly emotional aspect of being pregnant. Heck, maybe I just need a good cry. The whirlwind that is our life just has me feeling so many different things: excitement, fear, anxiety, dread (but thankfully not dead), and a weird combination of happy/sad all at once.

In the coming weeks, my husband will start a new job and the training will pretty much require me to be a single mom for the next 16 or so weeks. My husband will be around (thankfully) but will be distracted and rightfully so. We are also not sure if we can stay in our current county, so we are putting our house on the market in the coming weeks. I need to go through pretty much everything in our house and decide if it should go to storage, be given away or sold, or if it should stay in the house because we will need the item to function at home. Have I mentioned that I work full time?

This past week has been dedicated to getting the house prepared to go on the market. I can't take credit for much of this activity at all. The majority of credit goes to my husband and my mom. I can't bend/reach/etc very well, I can't paint (fumes bad for baby), and by the time I get home from work I tend to be pretty useless (or at least feel that way).

On Wednesday, we had two different people come to our house. One came to service our heating unit. That wasn't fun. He turned off the gas to the unit, checked it, and then informed us that he couldn't turn the gas back on to the unit because it would be a huge liability for him, his company, and us. He aslo informed us that we might have been breathing in a little carbon monoxide for a while now. Great. Oh...and it was $710 to fix the little problem the NEXT day, which mean we spent an entire day without heat in the house. Stepping out of the shower and int 57 degree air was kind of harsh! The countertop guy came out and let us know that it was going to be twice what our agent told us to refinish our countertops. This isn't necessary, but would be helpful withe selling our house. Then, I lost it. I am an emotional girl and apparently growing another emotional girl. The tears just kind of hit me and wouldn't stop. I kept trying to tell myself to suck it up, but that didn't work. I talked to my boss and took the rest of the day off.

Thursday morning rolled around and life was ok. I know things could be so much worse. We have a house that is now well heated and we haven't died of carbon monoxide poisonging. Yeah, things could be so much worse. These things are minor and I know that...but my emotions didn't. Life goes on.

The outsideagans

2011-01-02T17:20:00.000-06:00

Santa brought Kale a Leapster game system and two games. One of the games is the Backyardigans. With the past few days, Kale has picked up on the name and will tell us he wants to play. The only thing is that he sometimes jumbles up the name. He might ask to play the Backyardigans, or he might ask to play the Outsideagans. Gotta love it!

Kale is getting....

2011-01-02T17:09:00.000-06:00

Sometime around the end of May, Kale will be getting a little sister. At the moment we are lost in the world of pink. Ack!

All those comments I have made about being sure this was a little girl that was wreaking so much havoc on me...I was right! I came up with a middle name today that would be a constant reminder that she has been this way since conception...but I have already forgotten it. Ah, pregnancy brain! Anyway, when I needed to call her by her full name (and I am sure that I will!), I would be reminded that she was just being true to who she has been all along!

I went through a pink stage once in my life...I was 13 and the stage lasted two full weeks until I decided that putting on makeup, doing my hair, and wearing pink (or other feminine colors) was just too much hassle. Then I went back to my Levi jeans and t-shirts!

I have known for a long time that God and my mom are in cohoots with one another. It shouldn't surprise me at all that I am having a girl. It also shouldn't surprise me at all if her first words are "bow" (for her hair) and "frilly dress". I am going at this with the attitude that I have a lot to learn about bows, hair, and dresses....while at the same time hoping that she much prefers her brother's jeans and t-shirts and enjoys "digging in the dirts" with him while they fight over action figures and dump trucks!

Is there a baby...

2010-12-24T08:44:00.000-06:00

Any time that Kale gets a little too rough around my belly, I remind him to be careful. Then I ask him if he remembers why he has to be careful. He always answers with "because there is a baby in your belly."

He gets it, well, kind of anyway.

This morning, as he cuddled up next to me in our bed, he started to put his feet on my legs. We have slept like that since he was oh...a newborn. All of a sudden in his 6am slumber, he asks "mommy, is there a baby in your legs?"

I tried not to giggle. I answered that there was not a baby in my legs. He said ok and snuggled a little closer...both feet resting gently on my legs.

Tuesday

2010-12-22T07:59:00.000-06:00

Tuesday was full of fun and/or interesting moments...like me being stuck by myself in an elevator for about 15 minutes. Then there was Kale telling me that he and daddy DO NOT have a baby in thier bellies.

The funniest was when Kale had been crawling all over me on the couch and I reminded him to be careful of my belly. He then asked if I also had a baby in my arm or in my leg...because he wasn't going to crawl on them if I did!

There was also the moment I scored a great newest Medela breast pump (smaller than my current one and it also has a rechargeable battery) for about a fourth of the price of buying it brand new. I just have to buy replacement tubing and I will be set to go next summer.

The most sobering moment came when I nearly dropped to my knees right in the middle of a parking lot. The woman who sold me the pump...she is a mother of five and the oldest is 14. When she was pregnant with the fifth child, she also found out she had breast cancer. Due to her situation, she ended up with a 6 week preemie too. As for the cancer, she has beat it. She is currently under the reconstruction process. Her attitude was priceless and she referenced God several times in our conversation. I wasn't sure what to pray for first...forgiveness for all the things I take for granted or thankfulness that God has allowed this woman to continue being the mother that her kids need and also spreading His message in her everyday life as well.

In all the hustle and craziness of these final days leading up to Christmas, I hope we all take a moment to remember to count our blessings...its not about the material gifts, but rather about the ones we all take for granted all too often. Its about the funny little moments and the bigger moments that stop you in your tracks. Also, don't forget to say a prayer for all the families struggling this Christmas with the loss/missing of a family member who is now in Heaven.

Kale's suprise afternoon

2010-12-21T15:20:00.000-06:00

Yesterday afternoon, we picked up Kale from school and had an adventure. It started at the Laman Library train exhibit. I am not sure who was more entertained, Kale or his daddy. Its an interactive exhibit and Kale loved it.

From there, we headed to American Pie Pizza for dinner. Oh, and Santa just happened to be coming by during dinner. While we waited for Santa, I dropped the baby bomb on Kale. We showed him some ultrasound pictures and the furrowed brow look was hilarious. We made him guess what the pictures were and he asked if it was me...close kid, close! In a way, I guess he was right. Then, I told him there was a baby in my belly. He was quiet for a minute and then moved on to something else.

We had a picture taken with Santa, but Kale wasn't as brave as he was when Santa visited school...so Kale sat in my lap and I sat beside Santa.

After dinner, we made a visit to the grocery store. That left us getting home around 8pm or so....and Kale went to bed somewhere between 8:30-9pm. He was TIRED! He was soooo tired that he slept all night in his bed until 7am!

Too bad we can't have every afternoon be that busy and fun....but I am pretty sure that I would fall over from exhaustion if we did!

Ultrasound Day

2010-12-20T15:00:00.000-06:00

In some weird combination of the Thanksgiving to Christmas rush and just everyday life unfolding, my ultrasound day was here before I could blink. I remember the day we had Kale's ultrasound...it took F.O.R.E.V.E.R. to arrive. This one seemed to just kind of arrive in a whirlwind of activity. It probably helps that this one was scheduled two weeks earlier in my preganancy than my ultrasound with Kale.

For this baby, I got sent to the perinatologist because I am....old. According to the maternal age charts anyway. Here is what that really means....because of my age, I am at a more elevated risk of the baby having complications such as Down's Syndrome, etc. So, my doc sent me to the specialist who performed a more detailed and lengthy ultrasound this morning. I have no idea how long we watched our baby on the screen, but it was quite a while longer than we ever saw Kale at this stage! There was not one single thing that concerned the specialist. We talked about Kale's heart condition and the inability to see that condition from inside the womb. However, the baby's heart looks perfect for now. We saw fingers, toes, feet, hands, arms, face, spine, ribs, head, chest...we saw this child from head to toe...twice. We even saw a really close up view of the beating heart. Amazing. Sometimes it was hard to tell if the baby was moving or it was simply the ultrasound wand moving. I only got tears in my eyes twice through the experience. Pretty good for a hormonal momma who has been worried just because, well, I worry.

The baby is healthy, measuring EXACTLY on time (17 weeks, 2 days), and weighs 8 ounces.

This little one already seems to have an attitude. The doc had to jiggle the wand in my belly to get the baby to cooperate for one measurement...the baby was being stubborn and didn't want to move to a spot that would allow the doc to get a good measurement. However, the jiggling worked and the baby moved.

We saw the gender stuff too. In fact, we saw that portion of the baby twice as well. The baby wasn't shy about that part. We aren't revealing the gender to our families until Christmas. After they know, the world can know.

Until then, its a guessing game. Apparently, my father in law is taking bets on the gender, date of delivery, and something else (weight maybe?). If you want in on that $5 action, let me know...

Need a YUMMY gift?

2010-12-16T09:45:00.000-06:00

We all have someone on our list who either has everything or is just plain difficult when it comes to gift ideas. I have a solution for you! In fact, I have two solutions! How about sending them something yummy?

Oh, and don't forget about gifts for your boss, neighbors, etc! These are perfect gifts for those folks!

Hey, don't you deserve a gift? Sure you do! Treat yourself!

You definitely need to check out Cherry Moon Farms as they have lots of yummy treats. Their selection ranges from fruits to chocolate to fruit covered chocolate.

You can also check out Shari's Berries for more tasty treats!

Thanks to these two sites, I am now craving a chocolate covered strawberry....yum, yum!!!!!

Give them a try and let me know what you think!!!

Dad

2010-12-15T09:07:00.000-06:00

Over the past couple of weeks, Kale has been making a transition. Its been subtle. Suddenly though, he seems to sound like a 10 year old when he wants his daddy's attention. It started out as....daddy, daddy, daddy, DAD! Now, he has moved on to just starting out with dad, dad, DAD!

This morning, he got out of his bed at 6:45 or so (Yes, I said HIS bed) and immediately went to the hallway. His daddy was in the living room, so Kale yells this down the hall: Dad, I want you to come back to your bed.
There was no daddy involved. Just dad.

More and more, he skips over the daddy these days. I can't hardly stand it because it makes his sound so much older. Funny, the little things that can tug a parent's heartstings.

Garage, Round 2 = Crate from now on

2010-12-14T09:23:00.000-06:00

Goose in the garage, round 2, took place last night. I was lenient and let him stay out of the crate. Stupid me.

While we slept, a six pack of kid's Nutripals (liquid nutritional supplement) was torn into and several of them were consumed. I keep them around for the times when Kale just hasn't seemed to eat very well for a few days and I start to worry about him getting enough nutrients and vitamins. I guess Goose was feeling nutritionally deprived. Either that, or he needed something to wash the baby formula out of his system.

My husband waited until I was in the shower to ask me what I was going to do about the stuff that Goose peed on....which turned out to be not as bad as I stood in the shower imagining. Thankfully, my husband cleaned up the remnants of the Nutripal mess.

Thankfully, the weather is supposed to be warm enough for Goose to stay outside for a while...but the next time he has to come inside...to the crate he will go!

It snowed in our garage

2010-12-13T14:47:00.000-06:00

Its been a really long time since I have referenced our dog here. Today is his day. He is a black lab and his name is Goose.

So, with the weathermen preaching about how cold it would be last night, I went out into the enclosed garage and prepared it for Goose. We have a crate out there for him. He hates it. I don't blame him. I kinda hate it too. However, after his little antic last night, he might have to just hate that crate tonight as he look out from inside the metal cage.

This wasn't his first stint inside the garage. We are pro's at this and every time we (I) prepare the garage for him, I wake up the next morning to my husband telling me what a mess that Goose made with the xxxxx that he found. Last time, he found a box of Gerber Graduates fruit twists. He tore into the box and then managed to get about 3 packs of them open. He also found a box of fruist snacks that night. I guess he had a thing for fruit at the time. No matter how hard I work to make sure that there are no food items he can reach or find....and that any toy that might look chewable are out of his reach or inside the house, he ALWAYS find something to entertain himself with out there. One time, I tried to deter him by giving him a gigantic rawhide. That backfired, literally, out his backside and left us with a nasty, smelly mess!

So, last night. Ready to know what he found? 3 sample cans of Enfamil Enfagrow. That stuff has has a really long expiration and it was left over from when Kale had to use it. So, its just been kind of hanging around the garage over in my "stash section" and just waiting for a baby to come along that needed it. Last night, Goose tacked not one, not two, but THREE cans of that stuff. This is powdered formula folks....In aluminum type cans, sealed with a pop and pull top with a plastic lid on top of that. My husband aptly said that sections of the garage looked like we got a couple inches (ok, he exaggerated and said 4 inches) of snow last night. When I finally got the courage to go see the damage for myself, I found this:

3 cans that were torn into about 25 pieces
3 plastic lids with teeth marks all over them and 3 pop/pull lids that looked more like a human had released them.
Formula all over the place....but specifically on his dog bed.
1 formula scoop, and since one comes in each can, that means two are missing...

My best guess is that he did literally eat about 75% of each can. Those cans are either 8 or 12 ounces...I can't remember which and the labels would be too torn up for me to read anyway!

One of us made the comment that "he will have the runs for days!" and that is probably true. Lovely. With another cold night on tap, he needs to come inside tonight. Great.

Just a post

2010-12-13T14:28:00.000-06:00

**Editor's Note: I am getting good at this writing a post and not immediately publishing thing. Geesh. This was written last week, just prior to me being attacked by the head cold from.....you get the point.**

I'm not going to waste my time trying to think of a clever or fitting name for this post. Here is your warning, it might me a little jumbled.

We received Kale's medical records yesterday from the hospital. Random, I know. I have always wanted to have them for a multitude of reasons, with one of those reasons being the fact that I want to know what I don't remember or what I somehow missed. In reviewing his records last night, I learned (or relearned) a few things that had faded in my memory. I have always wondered if they did anything to help him with the pain of being shocked...now I know...they did. Now I also know that the second shock was twice as strong as the first unsuccessful shock. I was also reminded of how close to death he came.

This morning, a family in my original hometown had a memorial for their baby girl. She lived an amazing 128 days. She was born with a fatal condition. Their public sharing of her life has been pretty remarkable. I can't imagine the grief that they are feeling now. My heart absolutely breaks for the two older brothers that she left behind.

I told my husband last night that I am just moving from one appoinment or event to the next. At least that is how it feels. The next month is not only full of holiday celebrations, but also doctor appointments and adjusting to big changes. I am just trying to savor each day and find the blessings....and there are sooooo many blessings!

It's a.....

2010-12-02T14:03:00.000-06:00

I went to the doctor this morning. The baby is doing well, but hid from the doctor as he tried to find the heartbeat. Even more proof that I think this one is a girl...being so fiesty. Kale never hid. I am thinking that maybe this one will be missing a sweet tooth, much like daddy. Ep rarely eats sweets, unless you count the Oreo's he eats nightly with a glass of milk. Kale and I are sweet-aholics. Except right now, sweets are generally unappealing to me, to the point that sometimes just thinking about them makes me feel sick.

I wish I could already tell you that its a....... but I can't. I don't know yet. We will find out a little bit before Christmas at my level two ultrasound. Fun times, me being Advanced Maternal Age (AMA). You would think my past experience with pre-eclampsia or Kale's congenital heart defect would have some play into me being sent to the specialist. Nope. Its all because my body will be a whopping 35 years old by the time I have this kiddo. So, in a few weeks I go see the specialist and then we may wait a few days to share because I am pretty sure that would be a Christmas gift that a couple of grandparents would never forget....

As for names, we have played with a few...but haven't been really serious about any just yet. We also haven't decided for sure how we will handle not telling anyone the name, yet preparing Kale for the arrival of baby whoever. So, maybe this time we will be telling the name. Maybe not.

Just be glad we aren't making everyone wait until the end of May to just find out the gender!!!

My theory

2010-12-01T10:35:00.000-06:00

I am fourteen weeks pregnant and pretty sure this one is a girl...and here is why:

Hello all day sickness, you were nowhere to be found when I was pregnant with a boy. In fact, I didn't get sick at all!
Hello acne, what new spot would you like to appear today? You were nowhere to be found when I was pregnant with a boy.
Hello fever blister on my lip, this is the third one in three months. Possibly from the extra hormones of little miss trouble growing inside me? I had one, if that, fever blisters when pregnant with a boy.

Of course, all of these are just my theories, so who knows! And then there was the dream I had last night. All I remember was a little stockly blond boy running across a field of tall grass. So yeah, who knows...

I guess we will find out in a few or more weeks...not sure yet when I will be seeing the doc for my level 2 ultrasound.

Laid out

2010-11-30T18:06:00.000-06:00

This morning, Kale missed out on watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cartoons because he threw multiple fits. Oh, the drama. Oh, the withdrawal. He survived.

And I didn't tell him, but I recorded the two shows that he missed so that he would have something to watch tonight when he made his nightly request for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Yep, sneaky momma!

So, after greeting daddy and requesting a chocolate (or two), this is where he settled when I told him that I was turning on a brand new show for him! I am pretty sure he was comfortable...

Oh...and he is not sick...just worn out from school and all the dancing around that he did when he got home. He comes to life to ask for juice, cheese, and chocolate from time to time. He has been up out of the chair twice since I took that picture a few minutes ago...and has resumed a pretty relaxed position back in "daddy's chair" pretty quickly.

....all night long

2010-11-18T10:46:00.000-06:00

Ahem. Let it be known that Kale slept ALL NIGHT LONG in HIS BED last night. I laid down with him last night because it was thundering at bed time. He doesn't like thunder and hates lightning even more. I ended up falling asleep and stayed there until around 9pm or so. I was shocked that he wasn't in our bed already around 2am when I made the "I'm pregnant and can't go all night without visiting the restroom" run.

Oh the praise that went on in our house this morning (silently to God, very vocally to Kale)!

Side note and totally unrelated: I purchased a favorite for Kale on Tuesday. I bought peppermint chocolate kisses. He saw the bag when I got home and immediately grabbed it off of the counter. He asked twice for someone to open it and I delayed him with the comment "in a minute". Turns out, he is pretty much a clone of me when it come to patience and a clone of both of us when it comes to persistence/independence. I found him a few minutes later on the couch with an open bag of peppermint chocolate kisses. He had already devoured two of them and was working on number 3....and had plenty more out of the bag as well. He wasn't happen when his stash was returned to the kitchen and put out of his reach (read: inside the upper cabinets). I asked Ep if he had opened the bag. Nope. Kale did it himself. So, if you have candy...keep it out of his reach or its fair game, even if the entire package is not yet opened!

Dizzy

2010-11-17T14:28:00.000-06:00

*Edited to add...this was written a few days ago...just now getting around to publishing...the irony of that the the topic of this post is not lost.

Remember that post about knowing that I was going to blink and it would be the middle of November? Yeah, well, here we are. I feel kind of dizzy. Thanksgiving and my mom's birthday are a little more than a week away....and then it will be just Christmas just like *that*.

With the help of medicine, a loving husband, a great mom, and many supportive friends and family....I have nearly survived the combination of work chaos combined with my first trimester. Holy smokes, its just crazy how different that each pregnancy can be. Poor Kale is quite perplexed when he sees my head hanging into the toilet...and has learned to ask "mommy, are you sick?". Poor kid. I wish I could tell him I was just thoroughly inspecting the inside of the toilet bowl, but then he would want to see it too. He is a very inquisitive kid.

My boss is also pregnant and is about 8 weeks ahead of me. She had her ultrasound today and found out what she is having...and so now I have ultrasound envy. Have I told you I am old? Yes, I am old, according to my OB doc. Or, rather, I will be by the time this baby arrives (35). Thus, I get to have a "level 2" ultrasound sometime around 18 weeks...which happens to fall smack on Christmas. Not sure if it will be scheduled before xmas or after...but I guess I should start having conversations with the baby about cooperating and not being shy on ultrasound day.

Kale still doesn't know he is having a brother/sister. We just haven't told him yet. So, he is still blissfully ignorant to the fact that his world will be quite altered by next summer. He will be a good and loving big brother, but he may not be very accepting of the situation at first. I am ready to tell him soon...just waiting on my husband to be ready. I can understand why he wants to delay...because the questions will be never ceasing and I am sure we will be told many times that the baby needs to come out now by our very impatient little man.

In case you are wondering how tired I have been? Here are some good examples. My couponing has nearly become non-existent. I haven't gone chasing Target or Walgreen deals in...a long time. I passed up going out to eat with Kale and Ep on Friday night...as the couch was my best friend at the end of a long and tiring week. And the ultimate proof came yesterday when I had the chance to sneek in a Target run with my mom and decided to just go home instead.

There...whew...thats the extent of what you have been missing in my life lately. I know, call the paper...important stuff. Or not. I hope you are all doing well and that the holiday madness hasn't already sent you into a tizzy.

Three years ago today

2010-11-05T14:30:00.000-05:00

Three years ago today we learned the depth of Kale George Fletcher's strength. Three years ago today, he fought to live. Three years ago today, we came face to face with one of the most comforting and frightening lessons that a parent has to learn...having complete trust in God and the people He empowers to care for your sick child while all you can do to help the situation is sit there and pray.

Three years ago today, some very skill blessed and dedicated nurses and doctors saved Kale's life. Three years ago today, God was active in an emergency room at Arkansas Children's Hospital. Three years ago today, we found out our child had been born with an undetected heart condition.

Today, we have a happy, onery, stubborn, loving, persistent, tractor infatuated three year old son who brings joy and love our lives daily. Oh, and he also happens to have a heart condition. Today, we are thankful for the fact that he is so stubborn and persistent and that he probably has more fight in him than both of us combined. For each time he makes us want to go nuts because he is so stubborn and persistent, there is a small part of us that smiles because we know its that same stubborness and persistence that fueled his fight three years ago today.

Day to Day

2010-10-27T12:49:00.000-05:00

Life lately for me seems very day to day. This pregnancy is kicking my tail. Zofran is now helping. Yet, I am hungry all the time. I am tired of eating. Never thought I would say that. I told that to someone yesterday and they said it was crazy talk. So, maybe I have just gone crazy. Who knows.

It seems that about 6:30pm every night, I start slowing down. Kale does this too...only he managed to wait until 7:30pm. Last night, I was in bed asleep by 8:30pm. Poor Ep. Wait. He has the entire house to himself every night after Kale and I crash...so maybe not poor Ep.

Each afternoon is Gator Time at our house. Yesterday, Kale took out the security sign again...on purpose. He tried to give himself whiplash at least four times and we couldn't help but laugh as he just kept on going like it was no big deal. He also drove himself right up onto the porch and then straight into the bush. Yes, we laughed then too. At least he had his helmet on while he was riding!

For now, all things are gator related. Kale is whining? Big boys who ride gators don't whine! Big boys who ride gators also don't throw fits...but, well, Kale disproves both of those theories often these days. He is, after all, three.

The best news of the day? Kale has been coming to our bed at night and when he asks for more milk, we tell him that he has to go back to his bed for more milk. Its working. The last two nights it has anyway. I probably just jinxed the whole thing and Ep might make me sleep on the deck tonight. Next step...take away the milk at night (and the bottles too). Yes, there it is...my admittance to our colossal fail at parenting....our three year old is still addicted to his bottle.

Ok, I have done enough damage...

Birthday Saturday

2010-10-25T14:51:00.000-05:00

We held a birthday party for Kale on Saturday. We simply invited his entire class (11 other kids) because they have a rule that you are not allowed to invite one classmate without inviting them all. The invitations went out later than we had planned and the Hog game started before the party was over, but two kids showed up anyway. Yep, 2 out of 11. It was perfect, especially since one of them was as Kale puts it "my Sloaney". We had a great time with running around, cupie cakes, rice krispie cake, and fun presents. I think that everyone who attended seemed to have a good time.

We went home for naptime. We got up from nap to realize that the Hog game had been delayed by storms, so we watched the end of that big win before everyone slipped outside to watch as Kale discovered that he finally has his own John Deere gator. His cousin Fletcher helped me distract Kale in his room while everyone else went outside. Then, we led Kale outside. The look on his face was just pure joy. He hopped right in and had a blast.

We rounded out the afternoon with an early dinner of steaks and potatoes! Yummy! Once again, Ep did a great job cooking. My sister in law made the salad, which was so very helpful since the thought of lettuce was grossing me out at the time. Since we ended up with two extra steaks, our neighbors got to enjoy Ep's grilling as well.

Overall, despite some unecessary family drama, it was a great day! Thank you to everyone who celebrated with us and knew what the day was about...celebrating an amazing miracle 3 year old boy!

Oh...and first thing on Sunday morning, Kale was ready to drive the gator and started conning his way outside. "Mema, lets just go look at it..." and "I won't drive, I will just sit in it." He did eventually get to ride in it...most of the afternoon until the storms were about ten minutes away and then it was parked under the house. He was happy to leave it there, especially after the tornado sirens started going off! He is not a fan of those sirens!

Dear Kale...THREE!

2010-10-20T16:14:00.005-05:00

Dear Kale,

Today, you turned three years old. Let me tell you how you started your day. You came stumbling down the hallway asking me where your daddy was. When I told you he was gone for the day, you crawled up into my lap for some amazing cuddle time. Mommy loved it. I told you that it was your birthday and you told me it wasn't. I told you that you were three. You told me: no, I'm not three...I'm four. And that my son, is how you decided to take on being three.

Three years ago this morning, your mommy and daddy didn't know you. Mommy knew you were my squirm worm and we both knew that you were going to be our October pumpkin instead of our December stocking stuffer. Other than that, we didn't know much about you. We didn't know you would have hair that gets complimented even at the grocery store. We didn't know you would have blue eyes that sometimes look like the sky on a spring day. We didn't know you would be wicked smart to the point that it scares us. We didn't know anything about the love that would take hold our our hearts and turn our worlds upside down. We didn't know that you would love tractors and be so scared of the dark that you would refuse to walk from the living room to the bedroom without the kitchen light on in between. We didn't know that you would love to "dig in the dirts" but would hate having your sticky/dirty hands. We didn't know how persistent you would be. We didn't know what kind of fight you would have in you. We didn't know that within the first month of your life, you would show us exactly how amazingly strong you were and in the meantime teach us more than we could have known about ourselves and our faith in God. We didn't know how much joy you would bring to so many people. We had no idea that our child would have a personality to at completely dwarfs our own personalities. We just didn't know. We are still learning. It seems as though each day, you teach us more. Each day, our love for you grows. Each day, we learn that, amazingly, we actually can love you more.

Son, three years ago, we didn't know you. Some days, I have a hard time remembering what life was like before three years ago.  Today, we can't imagine life without you. Thank you for being you.  Each day we thank God for giving us the blessing of Kale George Fletcher.  We love you more than you will ever begin to know!   Happy birthday Kale.

Short and Sweet, from Romania with Love

2010-10-14T02:23:00.000-05:00

This post will be short and sweet. I am in Romania. Work brought me here. I have worked with people here for 6 years and this is my first time to be in thier country. I have even managed to see a former colleague while here (Hi Anca!) and take a look at her new scooter. Don't worry, I didn't ride it. I am pregnant...otherwise...well, maybe I would have.

I will tell you one thing I have found here. Sleep. Ah, glorious sleep. Although I do miss the little feet that curl themselves under my back/butt/head/whatever body part he can find while he shoves his head into his daddy's back. Yet, for a few nights, I have had some amazing "I am growing someone" sleep. Whew, I needed it. I would love to give a shout out to the amazing doc who provided me with a script for Phenegran. It is great to sleep without waking up at 2am and your brain shouting at you that you need to haul yourself out of bed and solve all the problems in the world because your brain thinks its the middle of the day. Its also great to wake up and not be nauseous!

Today, we go to the mountains. As many of you are waking up on Thursday, I will be settling into my new room in Vata (prounaounced Vatza) in preparation for dinner tonight and meetings tomorrow.

That is all for now. I love and miss my family. They know this, but just let me proclaim it publicly here.

I need to go...I am in the breakfast area that they are dilligently trying to change to a fancier lunch area, despite the fact that half of the food they serve here for breakfast would only qualify as lunch or dinner fare at home. Tomatoes and salami for breakfast anyone?

Baby #2 Proof and lots of information

2010-10-07T10:00:00.000-05:00

Not that anyone is asking for it, but here is proof that baby #2 has taken up residence. Yesterday, we went to the doctor and covered quite a good bit of information. Initially, we were going to have to leave without hearing the baby's beating heart. I brought up my concerns that I wanted to board my international flight knowing that everything sounded or looked the way it should at this point. The doc completely understood and I was worked in for an ultrasound. So, we saw and heard our little babe's beating heart. Ep appropriately described the baby and yolk sac as looking like a little diamond ring.

My due date varies, depending on which method you want to use to date the pregnancy. If you go by my last cycle: May 24. If you go by when I know (within a 48 hr period) that conception happened: May 28. If you go by the ultrasound: May 31. I am going with one of the last two dates. They seem more scientific and accurate. So, as of yesterday I was either 6wks4days (conception) or 6wks1day (ultrasound). Given that this child is the size of a piece of rice...I can see how the measurement might be off by a few days!

We also found out that I will automatically be tossed into the category of seeing a specialist. Most parents are given the choice to screen the baby for syndromes/problems. During my pregnancy with Kale, we opted out of them because we knew we were going to love and keep him regardless. None of those screenings would have detected his specific heart defect. My goal was to opt out of these tests again. Not an option. I don't have to get the blood work done like moms 34 and under. I get to skip that step because I will be the ripe old age of, gasp, 35 when this child is born. So, I will go see a specialist who will give the baby an extra close look to check for any problems. I am ok with that. I am also curious to find out if this doctor will be able to look at the heart with enough detail to know if we are dealing with another WPW baby. There is no genetic link for WPW patients...but I am going to want to know one way or the other with this next baby. Kale's can only been seen on an EKG. If this new baby has to have an EKG to find out if he/she has WPW, then I am ok with that. Now I am getting way ahead of myself. Slow down!

None of this will come into play until further down the road of this pregnancy. We have time, lots and lots of time. At least for now....

Posting

2010-10-05T11:54:00.000-05:00

Last week, my posting came to an abrupt halt. Maybe you didn't notice, simply because I have previously gone longer than a week before between posts. Usually, when I go quiet, there is a very stark reason. It varies somewhere between being too angry to form words, too hurt to make sense, or just being asked to "keep it quiet". Last week, my silence was an angry silence.

I got angry. Nothing new there. A long time ago, my dad tried to teach me that sometimes its really best to keep my mouth shut. I am pretty sold on the idea that he thinks I wasn't listening to him during any of the 39,528 times he tried to teach me that lesson. Guess what dad, I was listening. I just wasn't good at practicing what you were preaching...that took time and HUGE learning curve. I have learned my dad was right--sometimes you really do learn a lot more by keeping your mouth shut and you have a lot fewer messes to clean up if you don't run your mouth when you are angry. If you don't believe me on that one, just ask my mom about that time she told my brother to "swallow it, fart it". For those of you who don't know, my mom just now fell out of her chair when she read that. Ok, back to me. Because its all about me....or maybe not. Either way, I was angry.

I wrote a post about why I was angry. I smartly saved it and sent it to a friend for editing. I trust this friend with my son, which is essentially saying that I trust this friend with my life. I asked for her two cents. She gave it. I meant to go in and make some edits and then publish. I guess I was too tired to follow through with that intention.

All to often in the past year, I have wanted to post things here...and haven't. I have let others censor me. I have let trying to keep the peace censor me. I have let trying not to offend others censor me. I think, for the most part, I am mostly done with that. However, please know that I don't set out to intentionally hurt, offend, or embarrass someone when I write things here...ok, well, most of the time. So, in the future, if you read here...know this: I will be writing again from my heart and my head. I will continue to respect the wishes of one person in regards to my blogging: my husband. I won't be sharing nude pics of our son (no matter how cute and innocent they may be) and I won't be writing about things that are shared in confidence by my husband.

And as for that post I wrote and have yet to publish. It might eventually show up. It will remain with its original date, so it won't come to the front of the line. It will merely step in line between the original posts around which it was created.

Wow. That felt good. Moving on...

What happens in Vegas

2010-09-30T09:42:00.000-05:00

We went to Vegas. We hit the jackpot! We didn't leave our jackpot there. We brought it home with us. We will know sometime later this year if we brought home a boy or girl who will arrive sometime around May 24, 2011.

Fall is here

2010-09-29T08:43:00.000-05:00

Fall is finally here. After one of the hottest summer's I can remember, whew, fall is finally here! I should be joyful, and to some extent, I am. However, there is a part of me that cringes when fall comes calling. See, even when the weather has not yet shifted to cool mornings and the leaves have not yet started to turn from green to every other color, I know fall is coming. All I have to do is look at my calendar. I am going to blink and it will be Christmas. Somehow, ever since Kale made the Fall of 2007 eventful, there has been some kind of karmic energy that ensure that every following fall stays so busy that I can't seem hardly sit still.

Here is my 2010 proof:

Oct 2 or 3 Pumpkin Patch??? This has to be in there somewhere...and now is probably better than later...

Oct 10-18 Work trip to Romania

Oct 20 My baby turns 3

Oct 23 Birthday party...(maybe/probably/ummmm....)

Oct 30-31 Halloween fun

Nov 7-14 International staff in town for meetings, which means I will be in meetings all day and probably entertaining some nights

Nov 25 Thanksgiving

Nov 26-Dec 23 Create/order/mail xmas card and manically try to make sure that all xmas gifts are purchased and wrapped.

Dec 24-Jan1 enjoy xmas and possibly hibernate

*I should note that Kales entire class has birthdays from Sept-Jan...so there is always the possibility that we will be working in other birthday parties as well. At least the 12 of them are more spread out this year...last year, all 9 of them had a birthday within a 3-4 week period.

**I should also note that there are a few other items that I am not listing...because they are not absolute on the calendar just yet.

The Gate

2010-09-27T09:57:00.000-05:00

Kale fears the gate. Just mention the gate and you will see a look of fear cross his face. Mention it at bedtime and you will get a fit. His fear of the gate is sad. Based on his reaction, you might think something terrible has happened to him with the gate. In his world, it has. The gate removes his control at bedtime. If the gate is down, he can crawl out of bed and come to our room....sometimes multiple times. Yes, we allow him to come to our bed...but not before he has ever even gone to sleep in his own bed. He knows, once the gate is up, there is no more coming and going from his room...and to him, that is the end of the world.

A few nights ago, I had to bring out the "gate threat". Oh the fit. He had crawled out of bed and come to our room several times. I had rocked him, tucked him in, said goodnight, left on the closet light...but he wanted me in his bed and I wasn't giving in. Control. So back to the gate. I actually did have to put it up in his doorway.

What followed was every parent's heartbreak and breatkthough all rolled into one. He screamed, jumped up and down, shook the gate, tried to reach over it to open it (its more complex than just a latch), and even hiked a leg up to see if he wanted to try climbing over. I was watching all of this from the edge of my doorway. He couldn't/didn't see me, but I could see him. It took all the restraint I had to stay put when he hiked up his leg to attempt climbing. I waited it out. Glad I did. He isn't a huge risk taker. Not yet anyway. I guess the little bit of gate wobbling as he hiked up his leg was just enough to make him worry about falling. Then, in defeat, he ran back to his bed and covered himself up...and fell asleep. I went in about 30 minutes later to make sure he was well covered. I also took down the gate and later that night he came to our bed and gave his dad a good nightly kicking in the back. Since that night, there haven't been any problems with him staying in his bed to fall asleep for the night.

Fast forward to this weekend. Kale became very interesting in trying to put up the gate in his doorway. Smart little sucker. He knows if he can figure out how to put it up, he will know how to take it down. He went and got his babies and laid them in the floor close to the doorway. He then tried to put up the gate. Once he believed he had succeeded (the gate was standing, but one little movement of air and it would fall over), he let me know that the babies were not staying in thier bed and that he put the gate up. Control. I couldn't help but laugh. See mom and dad, those college psych classes are paying off!

Kale's babies

2010-09-23T14:50:00.000-05:00

Kale has babies. Not just one baby, mind you, he has two. They are identical. My son has twin babies. They are magical babies because they light up and play lullabies. His babies are what most people call a GloWorm.

Nothing like waking up at midnight to a thud in the hallway, only to become awake enough to realize that its not your child that went thud. It was one of his babies. Its hard not to at least smile at Kale's little glowing face (thanks gloworm) as he comes to a halt on my side of the bed...waiting for me to haul him into the middle of our bed. If both of those suckers aren't singing before I grab Kale, they are by the time I am done squishing him and them as I haul him into the middle of the bed.

I won't lie. Waking up in the middle of the night isn't fun. However, seeing my son's little glowing sleepy face as he hugs his babies does warm my heart. It gives me great hope that he will be just as great of a daddy as his own daddy has become.

Yeah, we can pretty much file this entire post as mushy...now you can go on about life.

Finally Friday!

2010-09-10T09:58:00.000-05:00

Hey y'all, its finallllllllllyyyyy Friday. The past week has pretty much been a whirlwind of family, Vegas, and unexpected craziness. I mean, normal everyday craziness is fine....but the craziness lately has really stepped it up a notch. We will embrace the changes, but first we will embrace the WEEKEND!

We have big exciting plans tonight. We are going...wait for it, wait for it....grocery shopping! Whoohooo! Or not. Actually, it will be kind of nice to just do something ordinary.

Tomorrow, we plan to attend a tailgate party before the big Hog game and then head home to watch the game from the comfort of our living room.

Sunday...we might have plans, but those plans don't require us to leave our house. That will be nice. I am sure that will be my opportunity to catch up on laundry as well. Yippee! Or not.

Somewhere in there, I have to price and tag my items for the local huge consignment sale. Last spring, I swore I would be done with all my sorting, pricing, and tagging before the weekend preceding the sale. Whoops, totally missed that goal. Oh well. I was too busy living life in the moment. I can live with that.

Here is a helpful hint from Kale this week: if you cry or whine during circle time at school, you have to leave hte circle and go sit in a chair.

I am thinking that we need that chair at our house...

The ACH Soap Smell

2010-09-08T12:42:00.000-05:00

Today, I was at the local chidlren's hospital to support my brother and sis-in-law while my nephew had a small outpatient procedure (which didn't end up happening...too bad they had to knock him out to do nothing, but we are glad because nothing was much better than knocking him out to do more). I digress.

I was at the hospital and used the bathroom. I know, newsorthy or blogworthy right? Or not. I washed my hands. Yes, I know, even better information to be sharing.

A few minutes later, my hands were cold and I brought them up to my face to blow into them. The smell hit me. That familiar-yank-me-back-in-time scent of the soap used at each public hand washing sink in the entire hospital. That smell floods me with a tornado of emotions that whip around one another and settle when the tears come to my eyes. The tears come because of the fear, memories, and thankfulness of the week we spent there with Kale. There is a link to Kale's story somewhere over there -----------------> in the right gutter of this blog. I know that I will never forget our days spend there. I allow those memories to flutter away the the back of my mind. Its only in moments of fear or soap smelling that those memories seem to come careening forward with such force that my emotions are completely overwhelmed and I end up looking all teary eyed for no obvious reason. Let's just say I have a true love/hate relationship with that soap scent.

UNcensored

2010-09-08T05:26:00.001-05:00

Some things I have wanted to tweet, facebook, or blog for the past few days and haven't...until now:

Vegas: been there, done that, not impressed!

When a husband puts his wife on the back burner, she tends to simmer and can quickly become boiling.

If you haven't become acquainted with 46mommas.com then you are missing out! Those are some inspiring and courageous momma's! (and not just because they shaved their heads!)

I think my brother rocks! I am so proud of him for so many reasons. I probably don't tell him that enough...

We have a housefull tonight and I am thankful for that fact. It probably saved my sanity.

We should all work harder to tell and show our love to those who mean the most to us.

There is a little boy snoring next to me. He is my world. I am so proud and humbled to be his momma!

I'm going to Romania next month for work.

There is so much going on behind the scenes that I am exhausted just thinking about it. If I could only tell you...

I don't exactly do well with censorship...me and censorship are not exactly friends. I tend to live out loud.

Words any wife just loves to hear from her sweetie: Hot Asian Chick.

If you believe that last one, call me and I will sell you all kinds if stuff!

Going to join the 5am party in the living room now...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

You know you want to read this, it is about HERPES!

2010-08-31T12:37:00.001-05:00

Ok, my goal here isn't to be an advertising machine. However, I do try to share when I come across a really good deal or product. If you are like me and get cold sores (fever blisters or herpes type whatever that you get on your face), then you probably notice that they seem to show up more during the winter or when you are stressed. That lovely little sore appears and hangs around for a few weeks. I don't suffer from much vanity, but even I feel quite conscious of that little sore on my mouth and often feel like it is taking up my whole face. Ugh. Anyway....

For years, I have been using Zovirax topical to treat my cold sores. Seriously y'all, it cuts the life of those things in half! There have even been instances where I have felt the sore coming (oh, the familiar itch or burn) and put Zovirax on it...and the sore was gone 3 days later. I swear. Yes, really. I have recommended it a couple of times to family or friends and each of them became a Zovirax believer after they gave it a try. My little tube of Zovirax lives in my purse. I have tried some of the over the counter stuff--NOTHING works like this stuff!

If you get these little sores, then you are bound to be interested, right? I mean, who wants a sore on thier face any longer than it has to be there?

So here is the deal...you can try this stuff out AND get a rebate on your co-pay! Most people will only end up paying $0 to $15 to try this stuff out. Here is the simple path:

Go here to print out your coupon/rebate form (be sure to PRINT!)
Ask your doctor for a prescription
Turn in your prescription and rebate form.
Use Zovirax on your next cold sore or fever blister.
You won't be sorry!

Worried about this being a scam? It isn't. I did this for the rebate on my next script. Here is what you see when you fill out the rebate page:

Thank you for your interest in learning more about ZOVIRAX. We will be sending you the most up-to-date information about ZOVRIAX via e-mail.

In the meantime, take advantage of our rebate for ZOVIRAX Cream. You'll pay only $15.00* on co-pays up to $50.00. the best part? You'll receive the rebate instantly. So there are no receipts to photocopy or save -- just bring the rebate form with you when you go to pick up your prescription of ZOVIRAX Cream at the pharmacy.

*Attention Patient: If your co-pay or pharmacy bill exceeds $15.00, present this certificate to the pharmacist for an instant rebate of "upto" a maximum of $35.00 for each product. If your total out of pocket pharmacy bill exceeds $50.00 for any single product, you will be responsible for the additional balance. Not valid with any other offer.

I met myself

2010-08-27T15:18:00.000-05:00

I met myself this morning. No, really, I did. Before my collective family starts calling my husband and telling him to "keep an eye on me", let me explain...

I was putting Kale into his seat for our morning ride to school/work. I plopped his bottom into the seat and put his cup aside so I could strap him into his seat. In that mere nanosecond, two still chubby little hands went to work. Ok, yes, my hands are still chubby too...but I am talking about Kale's little hands. They reached for the straps and he very clearly said I DO IT!

I should have known right then that I was meeting myself. I didn't. What I did know was that I had two options. Remove my hands and let him try to do it while knowing that eventually he would get frustrated and let me do it for him OR keep my hands involved in the situation and risk losing a finger and eardrum. I let him give it a try.

As I moved back a little from his personal space...oh, wait, does he have personal space? No, nor does he even acknowledge that such a thing exists for anyone else either. So let me rephrase that, I moved back so I was out of the way when the frustration hit him. Yep, thats better.

So, as I am moving back a little, I emerged from his mouth in a little whisper. As he intently stared down at the clasps and worked his little hands, he whispered "I do it myself". Oh, hello little me. Hello strong willed and stubborn and persistent little me.

Right at this moment, if you listen closely enough, I am sure you can hear my mom laughing. Later, when she reads this to my dad, you will be able to hear them laughing too. Ah, the sweet revenge of grandparenthood. Yes, I met myself. I know, or at least think, I know what I am in for with this child and he is going to completley wear me out. And I will love every stinking minute of it, if not in the moment, then later. Because I am stubborn and strong willed and am determined to love every stinking minute of it.

After I met myself and let him get frustrated with trying to connect the bottom clasps, I reminded him that those clasps can pinch him if he isn't careful. He dropped the clasps and said "you fix it mommy". Well, there must be some of his daddy in him after all!

Pinecone Research

2010-08-25T15:46:00.000-05:00

I recently signed up with this survey/research company and like it so well that I am posting it here. The surveys are short and sweet and this is one of the few reputable survey companies on the web. Give them a try if you are looking to earn a few extra bucks or rewards! Click here to get started! Enjoy!

Last day of class and a girlfriend

2010-08-19T21:22:00.000-05:00

While the majority of everyone around us seems to be reporting in on their child(ren)'s first day of school, we are winding down our last day of class here. Well, our last day of class with Ms Vivian.

Kale started school last July and within a month it was time for promotions, which is when he joined Ms Vivian's class. That makes Ms Vivian his first teacher. God bless her. They both survived! She even potty trained him. Can we make her a saint now? This is Ms Vivian and Kale:

And this is the teacher from the other portion of the split classroom, Ms Chasity. I am not sure who will miss Kale more...Vivian or Chasity. There hasn't been a day when Chasity hasn't greeted or said goodbye to Kale. This is Ms Chasity and Kale:

Tomorrow, school is closed to prepare for the big promotion. Cubbies are cleaned out, belongings are sent home, and (hopefully) all the toys and books are cleaned. On Monday, each kid goes to a new class. For Kale's class, pretty much the only thing changing is the location and the teacher. Every single kid in his current class will be in his new class...plus 3 kids from the adjoining classroom and 2 kids that he doesn't yet know. So, out of 11 other kids in his class, he is already very familiar with 9 of them. Thankfully, this aslo means his girlfriend will be his new class as well. Whew. We don't need heartbreak at almost 3 years old.

Yeah, my son has a girlfriend. Go ahead and roll your eyes. Yet, if you ask him who his girlfriend is...he will tell you. Its Fwoane. No her name is not Fwoane. Its Sloane. But he can't say it correctly and so it comes out Fwoane. Ask him about her and he grins. Anytime I talk to her, she beams her little grin at me and then cuts her eyes to him. Apparently, if you can be smitten at 2, then they are smitten with one another. Oh, and do NOT make the mistake of asking him if someone else is his girlfriend. I did that the other day and it went like this:

Kale: my friends are boys
Me: what about Sloane?
Kale: she is my girlfriend
Me: is Jolie your girlfriend?

Kale: no

Me: is Ainsley your girlfriend?
Kale: (sigh) NO MOMMY! I TOOOOLD YOU, FWOANE IS MY GIRLFRIEND!

Me: busted out laughing and finally recomposed myself enough to say, OK!

So this is Kale and Sloane:

I asked them to stand by each other. She obliged and stood there smiling and calm with her hands clasped in front of her. Kale on the otherhand...well, he pretty much lived up to his "Mr. Mischief" shirt today.

Groupon Gone Wrong

2010-08-11T22:08:00.000-05:00

I am a fan of groupon. I have been a fan of groupon since before it was even accessible in our area. If you aren't familiar with it, here is a quick intro: a business in your area does a 24 hour deal for a certificate/voucher/discount and once a certain number (usually a small number) of people committ to the deal, then it is activated (tipped).

For instance, a car wash may advertise a 60% discount on a specialized wash/interior clean on your vehicle. Once the tipping point is reached, anyone who has already committed or committs during that 24 hour to purchasing the voucher will get the deal.

So, a few weeks ago, our favorite car wash (great service in the past) had a groupon deal for a $25 cleaning for a $10 price. Sweet! We grabbed one. Before we left town a for our vacation, we had used our groupon to get the truck cleaned. As we rolled down the road that afternoon, I noticed that it appeared the front window had not been cleaned on the inside. Bummer. That was one of the main reasons I bought the deal. My front window REALLY needed a deep clean. I mentioned the problem to my husband and we agreed I would just handle it when we returned home in a week.

Fast forward to this past Monday. On my lunch, I head over to the car wash and explain the situation and why its taken me so long to report it to them. The asst manager tells me no problem and that they will not only take care of my interior windows, but re-do the entire truck (exterior wash, clean tires, clean interior, etc). Sweet! I don't have time that day to let them do this, so I ask if my husband can bring the truck back tomorrow. Of course! No problem. Just ask for either the asst manager or the manager and explain what has already been decided. He even gave me his name, the manager's name, and the name of the specific wash code.

Of course, as my husband is on his way to get the truck washed, the sky lets loose a torrential downpour. Great. Well, lets try again tomorrow. So, now we are at today.

My husband takes the truck in and explains it all to the manager, who has no idea about my conversation with the asst manager. However, he takes our word for it and puts our truck through. As he was walking up to our truck, my husband was rummaging through the center console and money was visible. I had laid it there the previous day. It was in a closed compartment that he opened up. Yes, I know. Yes dad, I know. YES MOM, I know. So, anyway, my whole big whopping $7 is laying there. I know it was there because I had used some change out of that console just an hour earlier. I saw the $7 (a $5 and two $1) plus I also knew there was a separate $1 a little further down and if you dug just a bit below that one, you would find another $5. My husband knew the $7 was there because it was laying on top of the paper he was seaching for in the console. The manager sees it as well. Neither of them knew about the other $6.

The truck is cleaned inside and out and my husband is handed the keys. I am not sure if he had even left the parking lot when he looked in the console and noticed the big whopping $7 was gone. He went to the manager and said that we have a new problem. He explained the missing $7. He tells the manager he has 20 minutes to get it all figured out or he is calling the police. Stealing is stealing and money doesn't grow on trees at our house, especially not right now! The manager knows the money was there. He saw it. (Later on the phone, he tells me that he saw it.) So, he hands my husband $7 and promises to figure it out. My husband leaves and calls me.

I was furious. First, you don't do what you were supposed to when cleaning my truck...and then when you are trying to make good on that, you steal from us? Nope, don't think so! A few calls later and I am on the phone with the manager. The first thing I did was ask to speak to the owner. The manager can't stop apologizing. The owner is out of town. By the time we hung up, the manager told me that he would call me later this afternoon to let me know what he uncovered from his staff. He had already made two employees empty their pockets. He had also told them that if he had to, he would close the business for a few days until it all got sorted out...meaning they would not be getting paid. I trusted that he wasn't playing around. I also made it clear to him that we had been loyal customers BEFORE the groupon even existed, so now he had basically lost us as customers over something that started out as a way to bring in customers or get current customers to upgrade a service. I made it clear that if he wanted our business, he was going to have to earn it back.

He called me back a little after 5pm. How many of you are surprised that he actually called me back. Anymore, customer service is dead. Not at this car wash. He immediately said he wanted to update me on things. He said that the three staff who had touched our truck were no longer working for the car wash. He said he wasn't able to figure out who took the money, so he let them all go. Yep, put your eyeballs back in your head. He moved on to ask what he needed to do to retain our business. I was so stunned, I asked him for the chance to discuss it with my husband before letting him know. He offered up deep detail service (the kind where you drop off your truck and come back in a few hours), oil change...whatever. Ok, for real, pick your chin up off the floor. I know, right? Amazing. What do you know, customer service is still alive.

I am not sure who was stunned more, me or my husband. I don't think that was the outcome either of us expected. We are not disapointed with it, but just stunned that someone was willing to go that length in the effort to catch a $7 thief. Most times, a manager would say they had much bigger issues to deal with and move on. If anything, I expected that the thief would be fired and it would be such a shame that someone lost a job over $7 measly dollars. Yet, it was much larger than that. Three people went home jobless today because one of them failed to do the right thing and speak up to being guilty. I am not stunned that the thief didn't speak up. In fact, I doubt the thief realized that the boss would truly fire someone over $7, much less all three of them.

Despite the fact that they failed of giving me what I paid for the first time and then stole from me, I still think I will be giving them the chance to retain my business. People make mistakes. Businesses make mistakes. Its how those mistakes are handled and rectified that makes such a huge difference. For once, a person and a business are choosing not to sweep a mistake under the rug...they are willing to do whatever it takes to make it right. Yeah, I am all about those kind of second chances.

As for the $5 and a separate $1 that was in the same console and buried just a little deeper in the paper pile...they are still there. I even doubled checked to make sure that the original $7 hadn't just been shifted around. Nope. Three people who had jobs this morning are now jobless tonight. One of them has $7 more than he was supposed to have today. I hope that $7 was worth it. I bet that the other two who lost thier jobs think that as well. Well, maybe not...

Round and Round We Go...where we stop, nobody knows!

2010-08-09T22:00:00.000-05:00

The title says it all right now. Round and round we go. Life hasn't been boring lately. Here is a preview...and just maybe I will get around to posting more in detail about a few of these events.

My husband was unexpectedly available to have this past week off work. We rearranged a few agenda items and made a great week of it. We started at camp for a few days, and then jaunted to my parents house to be around for the welcoming of our new nephew. Then, we jaunted some more and landed at my in-laws house for a few days.

In the midst of all this, we have been embracing some changes in our routines and finding blessings in what some would call a hardship. Moreso, God has reminded us constantly that we are in His hands and that He will see us through our struggles. We have even had unexpected glimpses of perspective tossed at us.

It was a great week full of welcoming new life, finding blessings, and just letting go of all the stress/struggles of our everyday life at home. Thank you to everyone who hosted us and thanks for loving on us!

The coming weeks have agenda items of people turning 40 (not us!), transition to a new class at school for Kale, figuring out a new normal, and saying a lot of prayers that fall doesn't get shy and take forever to show up because we are tired of this heat!

Connor Joseph George

2010-08-02T20:49:00.001-05:00

What an amazing day! What an amazing blessing it was to stand in the corner of a hospital room and watch as a momma, daddy, and two grandma's welcomed Connor into the world.

Connor entered the world at 4:56pm weighing 6lbs 2oz and 19 inches long.

God is so amazingly good!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

36 Hours

2010-08-02T03:52:00.001-05:00

Sometime in the next 36 hours, my brother will become a dad....his wife is being induced in a few hours. Look out world, here comes Connor Joseph George!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Saturday Sanity Score

2010-07-24T12:58:00.000-05:00

Today, I had a Saturday Sanity Score. Yeah, say that three times.

On any given Saturday morning, you are most likely to find me shopping in someone's front yard, garage, or maybe even inside thier house. Doing this gives me time to clear my head, only be responsible for me, and just enjoy the solitude of being me.

My husband used to roll his eyes at me for bringing home other people's junk and having actually paid our hard earned money for it. After watching me buy stuff and resell it for profit and also bringing him home a few awesome items ($50 golf shirt for a buck anyone?)...well, he is now on board with how I choose to spend "Marcia" time. Today, he didn't even roll his eyes when I brought in a bag of boy's clothes (mostly for my soon to arrive nephew) and two boxes of girl clothes. Of course, he doesn't yet know (well, he will if/when he reads this update) that I also bought a couple of other items that are still in the back of my truck.

There are a select few of you who are still wondering why I bought two boxes of girl clothes. He is why. The daddy of the house was selling them cheap! He was also selling these two items:

This cradle is made by Davinci and sells anywhere from $150 and up.

This stroller is a Graco Metrolite in gender neutral Rittenhouse print, which sells for $125 and up.

That is $275 worth of retail price for these two items. Yes, I know...but Marcia, those are the prices for these items when they are new. These items are used. Ok, but just go ahead and come show me where there is sign of use in this cradle. The cradle appears to be brand new. In fact, this cradle looks newer than the crib we have in storage...the one my kid only slept in for a sum total of 3 nights. The stroller has been broken in, but overall its in great shape as well.

No, I don't need these items right now. Sorry, but this is NOT my way of announcing a pregnancy if any of you had hopes for that. However, I do know a bargain when I see one. In fact, I am pretty sure that it was an outright sin for how cheap I bought these two items. Before I tell you what I paid, let me also tell you that the guy GAVE me a box of girl clothes that apparently have stains and such. I didn't even rummage through the box, I just took it. I also bought another box of clothes (babyGap, Carters, etc) while I was at it since the most any item was priced was fifty cents. I paid .30 for a onesie and two pairs of pants that I promise you will bring at least 10 times that if not more at the consignment sale this fall. So are you ready for the total price I paid for the cradle and stroller? Are you sure? Ok.

$12.00

Yes, twelve bucks.

He started at $15 for both. I offered $12 while trying not to mess myself with excitement. Dude could have sold the cradle for 3 times that price...easy. He even took it apart for me and loaded it into my truck. Nice! After we agreed that the stroller/cradle was sold, I started sorting through the clothing. No fewer than 4 different ladies asked about the cradle and stroller while I was sorting. I am pretty sure there would have been a boxing match if he had told them what I was going to pay for them!

So, that was my Saturday morning Sanity Steal! How did I do?

Raising

2010-07-22T16:46:00.000-05:00

I was eight years old when my brother entered my world. I say entered because that is exactly what he did. He was born on August 24 of that year. I found out that he existed on August 26th. If my parents had known that he wouldn't come home until August 28th, I wouldn't have found out about him until August 27th. You do the math. Backwards right. Usually a child of eight years old knows very well that she is getting a brother or sister months in advance. Not me. My brother is adopted. I had longed for a brother or sister for years when my parents set me down that day in August and asked if I still wanted a brother or sister. I replied yes. They surprised me by saying that was good because I had a brother and he was coming home the next day. To the world, my parents were blessed with a new baby and I was blessed with a little brother. In my world, I was blessed with a new baby to raise. And raise him is exactly what I set out to do. My mom humored me. Well, she didn't humor me that one time when I was babysitting him and I didn't change his dirty diaper for over two hours and he had an awful rash as a result. In fact, she yelled at me and grounded me. That didn't stop me from telling my mom exactly how to raise my brother. Again, she humored me. As my brother grew, he had two momma bears to protect him, scold him, and play with him. One of us also antagonized him.

Somewhere around the age of 15, my brother warped my world. He ~~told~~ yelled at me in frustration one day that he didn't need two moms. He needed a mom and a sister. My heart broke. My anger rose. I couldn't find any words. That might be the single time in my life that my brother has silenced me. Anyone who knows us well also knows that this is no simple task.

Over the past several months, I have had the chance to hear my brother say how he intends to raise his child. He knows what his child will be allowed to do, say, behave, etc. He knows how the child will be disciplined when the time for discipline arises (which will be often since apples don't fall far from trees!). I was there once too. I now completely laugh at that "pre-mommy of my own child" self. I do my best to humor my brother and just nod my head. I might or might not have a bruise later for writing that.

Last weekend, we were having dinner with my several extended family members. My son was being two. He was done eating before the meal arrived. He wanted to do whatever his 9 year old cousin was doing. He wanted to show his roots and talk at the top of his lungs. Yes, being two.

At one point, my son ran from the table and was headed for the front door. My brother jumped up to go after him. He was talking very sternly to my son when he returned. Holy momma bear clash of internal reactions. Part of me (Kale's momma bear) wanted to protect my child from the scolding he was receiving. The other part of me (momma beat to my brother) knew that my brother was raised to know how to handle the situation and to let him get some practice because a stern talk from his uncle wasn't going to do long term damage to my son. My inner momma bears for each of them went to war. It was a flash moment. Here and gone within seconds. I totally wasn't expecting it and it humored me.

Recently my brother called me Mom Jr. and rolled his eyes. I rolled my eyes right back and took the title as a compliment. His day is coming!

Something Gave...

2010-07-19T11:28:00.000-05:00

Something gave. Sort of, anyway. We went to my parents house on Friday and Kale got to sleep in our room with us (usually slept with my parents in a king size bed). My mom moved his toddler bed into our room there. Kale slept for an hour on the way to my parents. Then, he played, played, played before eating dinner. After a bath, he was ready for sleep. By golly, sleep he did. He only drank half of his "go to sleep" bottle and at 3am when he woke up, he was happy to get the other half of the bottle and drift off back to sleep in his toddler bed. We all woke up happy the next morning. I told Ep that I slept so well that I actually had "sleepy" in my eyes. Whoa!

Kale wore himself and his Mema and Papaw out on Saturday. We ate dinner with all of our immediate family, except for Ep's sister Wendi. We missed her and hope she can join us next time. By the end of dinner, Kale's exhaustion was starting to show. He went home with Mema and Papaw and it didn't take a lot of coercion to get him to go to sleep. He woke up again around 3am and went to get into bed with Mema. He was then out until morning.

Yesterday, he finished wearing out Mema and Papaw on the tractor, tractor, and more tractor. He took a short nap and then we headed to Little Rock. After helping unload the truck, Kale and I went back outside to water our "vegbatles". There are some givens when watering with Kale: he will drop his pants and do his own version of watering the grass, he will get you wet when its his turn to water the vegetables, and you won't be able to resist getting him a little wet either. Ep came out to find both of us (me, Kale) soaked from head to toe and having a good time. I think we watered ourselves just as much as the plants. It was so hot and it just felt really good! Nothing like hosing off with our kid as you both laugh and play on a hot summer day!

We then went inside and both took a shower while Ep fixed dinner (leftovers) for everyone. After dinner, all of us slowed down pretty fast. Kale went to bed, didn't drink all of his milk, and zonked out. Ep was right behind him. At 3am, I heard Kale cry out in his sleep. I went to check on him, gave him some milk, and covered him back up. He slept in his bed until 6:30am. Yippppeeee!

What gave? I think its called just wearing him out. He has more energy than seems humanly possible. He goes, goes, goes all day long. We just have to find an outlet for him on the days when we don't have any go left. After a long day at work, trying to figure out dinner, and just handle life in general....finding a couple of hours to just play outside is kind of hard. I know, so many parents struggle with this. Yet, this is what Kale needs. Time to run. Something else is going to have to give if we want him to keep sleeping this way at night...because something gave this weekend and the kid slept like a rock star and we all loved it!

Something or Someone has to give (soon)

2010-07-14T14:31:00.001-05:00

Something has to give. Or someone has to give. Or maybe its a little of both? I need more quality sleep and not to wake up in a pee smelling bed most every morning lately.

We have two (bottle and co-sleeping) struggles at night in our house. Kale still gets bottles at night to go to sleep. He gave up the paci on his own at 4 months. He is not slowly edging toward 3 and still hooked on the bottle because it became his "comfort thing". He wakes up in the night, comes to join us in our bed, and ~~asks~~ demands more milk. What happens next is where things go south. Either I trudge out of bed and get him more milk or he throws a "hell hath no fury like a toddler told no" fit. A kicking, screaming, flopping 2 year old at 1am--I don't think there is even a adequate word for it. On a good night, one dose of milk will get us to the morning hours when its time to wake up. On not so good nights, somebody (usually me) is bouncing off walls to the kitchen and back 2-3 times. The reward? Usually we have a wet bed by morning on those not so good nights. I can't really blame the pull up for letting us down in that situation. In the middle of the night, neither one of us seems to have the energy (willpower?) to try to take him back to his bed and make him stay there.

Last night, I gave something new a try. I was flying by the seat of my pants with it. Kale came to our bed and asked for milk. I got him the milk. An hour later, he woke up and asked for more milk. I refused. Holy fit. My husband's back took a beating (sorry babe!) because he was on the foot end of Kale. I had the flopping and whailing head. Yet, I refused him. Finally, I told Kale that if he wanted milk, he had to go back to his bed to drink it. By golly, it worked. Sort of. He went and got into his bed and I delivered his milk. He thin stayed there until a little before 6am. He crawled into our bed and asked for milk. Before I could refuse him, he was snoring. He woke up around 7am, told me he was wet but not to touch him. Ok. He zonked back out. Yes, I let him lay there asleep in his pee. Do I win the mommy of the day award? I got up and took a shower and fully expected a wet and irritable boy to greet me before I was done showering. Nope. I got dressed and still he slept. I was putting away clothes in his room when he finally go out of our bed and meandered in. His first comment was not about being wet, but was right on cue for the first thing he asks me most mornings: where's daddy? I reminded him that daddy had already gone to work. Then, just as casually as ever, he tells me he is wet. Oh, to be two.

I don't know all the answers and I don't even know if I have really found a new method to this crazy madness of our night life. But something has got to give. The bottle has to go. The sleeping half the night in his bed, half the night in our bed needs to change too.

I am open to suggestions....

Living in the Bathroom

2010-07-13T09:35:00.000-05:00

All this time, I have wondered why people spend soooo much money spiffing up thier bathrooms. Now I know. Its because when you have a potty training toddler, you practically LIVE in the freaking bathroom. Ugh.

On Sunday, I spent the majority of my day in the bathroom with Kale. Ok, really, it was only four or so hours. You spend that many hours in the bathroom waiting for someone else to do thier business....it will quickly feel like all day. Trust me. He needed to poop. Four hours after his his first announcement that he needed to poop and about 87 trips to the bathroom later, he did finally manage to land the poop in the potty. And oh did I cheer. Oh how his daddy cheered. We are still cheering!

In the meantime, our smart child figured out yet another ploy to get our attention. For all our differences, there is one thing that my husband and I hate: cleaning up poop from places it should not be.....such as in underwear, floors, carpet, or just about anywhere other than in the toilet. For the record, I do not enjoy cleaning up poop in the toilet either. Pretty sure my husband would raise his hand right here and say, me neither! So back to our smart son. Anytime he so much as utters the word poop, most everything stops and whoever is closest to him makes a mad run to the bathroom in the effort to get him in there, get his pants down, and get him on the potty BEFORE any poop appears.

Our son a quick study. Oh look, mommy is at the computer. Mommy, I need to poop. And like magic, the computer is left in the dust and he gets mommy's attention. Oh look, daddy is watching someone play with a ball of some sort on tv. Daddy, I need to poop. Look at daddy bolt from his chair like someone announced they are giving away free cold beer and its in the bathroom.

Just like any other marketing ploy, our son apparently comes with fine print. If you lift him up and turn him over enough times, you will find that somewhere on his body is some fine print that says: Just because I announce that I need to poop does not mean that I will poop right now and in reality, I might not even poop today at all.

We are suckers and we buy into the marketing ploy every single time in fear of the one time that we don't buy in, one of us will be left cleaning up poop in the hallway, carpet, and underwear. Most trips to the bathroom include him actually getting on the potty. Some times, it would have been easier for him just to say: I want your attention and there is no need to try to get me to pull down my pants right now because nothing is happening in that department right now.

This is one of those which is worse situations. This is NOT one of the things people tell you about BEFORE you have kids. In fact, its not one of the things anyone tells you about ANYTIME regarding kids...they just leave it out there to be sprung on you like a well planned surprise party. Only there is no cake, balloons, or fun times at this party. There is only lots of frustration and laughing at yourself when you realize that you just celebrated the fact that your child pooped.

So, for now, if you need us....look in our hallway bathroom. When we are home, one of us is usually losing feeling in our backside as we sit on the side of the but and coach our son.

Fiber (and the aftermath)

2010-07-10T15:00:00.000-05:00

Here is your warning: If you don't want to read about an experience with Kale and poop...stop reading NOW!

You were warned.

Yesterday, my husband went to the grocery store to buy a few items. He picked up some mini shredded wheat cereal for himself. No problem there. If he wants to eat mini shredded ~~FIBER~~ cereal, then he can take care of any digestive issues he might experience.

This morning, I woke up before both my husband and son. Shocker, I know! I snuck out of the house for some Saturday morning sanity (garage sale shopping). When I talked to them a little later in the morning, I found out that BOTH of them had enjoyed quite a few mini shredded wheats. A comment was shared that the little guy would probably give us one good package later today. Wonderful. Given that he has successfully gone poop in the potty for us a whole ONCE, well...each time he decides he needs to poop is a struggle for everyone involved.

I arrived home after naptime had been conquered and my husband swiftly left to go work out at the gym. His final words to me included: "He has only been asleep for 45 minutes." I quietly hauled my loot into the garage and slipped into the house...to hear a whailing boy. Great. Short nap. Ok, fine.

Where does the poop story start...oh...about....right HERE! After he had been up for about 10 minutes, I noticed he had a bloated belly about the same time he started announcing that he needed to poop. Up on the potty, nothing, down off the potty, put on underwear, I need to potty, back up on the potty, nothing, get down off the potty. Granted, all of this happened in about 90 seconds and I never left the side of the bathtub. He ran to his room because he wanted a pull up and because I am a ~~sucky~~ parent, I let him. Mistake. Sucky parents always pay. About a foot from the bathroom door, it hit him. It didn't hit him like a little poke in the belly. Oh no. This was a 326lb linebacker just rolled through his belly. Plop, Plop, Plop and a whailing kid later...well, I had a heck of a mess to clean up. I was smart about it though...I picked him up and set him on the potty in case there was more where that came from. Nope, just a sprinkler hose that nailed the side of my leg and then my hand with pee as I shielded it down into the toilet. Are we done yet? Nope.

I cleaned up the boy and cleaned up the mess. I sanitized the floor, rug, toilet seat, and my hands/leg. By then, he had decided to put on a pull up. Don't be surprised that he once again started announcing that he needed to poop. Lovely. I tell him to go sit on the potty. I follow him in there. He stands right in front of the potty and whammo...right into his pull up. I didn't even have the chance to put him up on the potty. Ugh. He was crying and I wanted to cry and was already silently cursing my husband.

I think we are done. I may pelt my husband with mini shredded wheat when he gets home. And now I know what to feed my kid if he ever gets constipated. Fun, fun times!

Colors with Kale

2010-07-09T16:32:00.000-05:00

My child made me nervous the other day. I always imagined he would be good at making me nervous, but I always figured he would be a daredevil and never imagined it would be his mouth causing the anxiety. My parents are laughing right now. You can probably hear them rolling in laughter from wherever you are reading this. I soooo had this coming.

I went to Kale's daycare (school) to pick him up early for a dr's appointment. There are two teacher in his room. One of them asked what doctor he was going to see. Without missing a beat, he said "the black doctor". I tried really hard to pick my chin up off the floor while also trying to figure out where that even came from. I should pause here to tell you that it seems that about 95% of the staff at his day care are African American. Both of Kale's teachers are undeniably African American. Can you see where this is going yet?

The teacher teased him and said he couldn't even talk to her anymore. We all know that he wouldn't give three flying monkeys if she said he could talk to her or not, because he would still talk to her anyway. So then she asks him what color am I? This is where I wanted to run from the room or hide under the table or maybe just go throw up in one of the classroom's mini-toilets. Instead, I just stood there alternating between a stutter and silence as I took it all in. My head spun. Surely, at two, he does not yet recognize race. He just looked at the teacher and seemed a little confused. Whew. Or maybe not. She asked him if she was black or white. He answered black. Uh-oh. This is when my efforts to get him out of that room and out the door really kicked into gear.

Then she asked him what color his other teacher was. He looked straight at the other teacher and said "Vivi is orange."

She is very visibly NOT orange. I started to regain some of my dignity and composure and even a little bit of hope that my child is still "race blind". Both teachers tried really hard not to fall out of their chairs laughing. I gathered his little bohiney up and we scooted out the door.

Why is it always ME that is around him when he says this kind of stuff? Doesn't his daddy have at least a little bit of paying for his raising to do in the mouth department? I guess not. Yep, thats all me.

Perspective

2010-07-08T17:10:00.001-05:00

The last few weeks have been trying in our house. We have a two year old who apparently is making an early bid of acting like a teenager. We have been ~~trying not to go~~ crazy as we put up with/give in/stand strong against his antics. Don't bother telling us that some of those exact reactions only encourage his behaviour. We are still just working on controlling our own behaviors most of the time.

At the end of the day, we all seem to hit the wall. Lately, we have a bath rebel. He doesn't want to take a bath. After a short ~~wrestling match~~ struggle, usually we win and he gets into the tub. Then ensues the struggle of getting him out of the tub.

His bedtime routine has varied over the years. Yes, we know, kids love routine. Ideally, he would have a solid routine that would lead him to bed to sleep soundly ALL NIGHT LONG IN HIS BED. That would truly be ideal. Our kid is a realist. So the reality is that we struggle to find a routine that he doesn't try to alter. Right now, it includes rocking to lullabies for two songs. Usually, by the time we make our way from school to play time to dinner to bath to bed, I am ready for a break. I love to cuddle my child. Yet, there are nights when his bed time can't come soon enough and cuddling him isn't my priority. Stone me now. Trust me, those stones won't do any more damage than the good dose of mommy guilt I give myself repeatedly for that realization. Any parent worth their salt will admit they have at least felt this way once. Any parent who hasn't...well, they win (and are probably lying!).

And here comes perspective. When those lullabies seem to be dragging on as we rock our way into the night and I wait for him to concede he is ready to get into bed without a fight, I find my mind shifting. It shifts to the land of guilt. It takes me to a place with the kind of perspective that grabs your heart and shoves it up into your throat. Most times, I can't keep the tears from welling up as I stop to consider all the parents who would give anything and everything to be rocking their child that night. Instead, those parents are missing a child who is in Heaven. Perspective. My child is here with me and I owe it to every single one of those parents to slow down and love on him as much as possible. Nevermind the fact that he is a miracle child and had his own near possibility of becoming a Heavenly Angel. Perspective. I hug him, squeeze him a little tighter, and kiss his head. I am sure I know more mommies than I realize who would give anything to hug those Heavenly Angels. I know two who constantly rush to my mind when I think that way...one lost her baby due to a heart condition and another just lost her baby for no reason that was ever given but he was stillborn.

I will rock my child tonight. I will have perspective.
God, please don't ever let me lose my perspective.

The Fifth of July

2010-07-06T11:51:00.003-05:00

Well, yesterday was interesting. The day started with a 2 year old asking to go to school. Can I bottle that up and uncork it when he is oh....say, 6? I am thinking he will be singing a different toon by then. It was cute that he wanted to "go to school and see my friends."

I cleaned up a collective pile that was getting out of control in our room. I was wrapping that up when my husband walked in and asked if I was starting something I wasn't going to be able to finish (today). The next words out of my mouth weren't these, but hindsight is 20/20 so I sure wish I had said: NO, ARE YOU?

I got out of the house to run an errand and knew that my husband would be bringing Kale to me. I was at the mall and got a call requesting that I come join them for a quick lunch. I said yes, waited my turn to pay for the stuff I was purchasing, and then walked the entire length of the mall back to my truck. I apparently wasn't fast enough. I looked down and had several missed calls and some texts...and a voicemail saying that lunch together was no longer happening, that Kale had dirty pants, and that they were waiting for me in the parking lot of our lunch destination. Lovely. Can I just keep driving? Or not. I retrieved Kale and WE managed to change him in the parking lot without any misplaced poop. Yes, this is my life...where I am talking about pee and poop more than anything else lately. Fun times.

We each got kisses goodbye as my husband headed out for his golf game. I took Kale to the park and then to lunch. We went home and both of us crashed into naptime. I got up in time to get a few things done before littel feet came running up the hallway. We went out into the garage and started tackling all the piles of stuff out there. Four million boxes later, we had made some progress. I convinced our neighbor to cut a few inches off of our new screen door so that it could be hung and not forever live in our garage. The old screen door pretty much disassebled itself. Kale's wagon is no longer holding my free Walgreens purchases from several weeks ago. I started disassebling the boxes and managed to hurt my thumb in the process. The injury involved a hook/bladed type devide and a chunk (still attached) of my thumb. Not pretty. Kale and I took a walk over to the neighbor's house just in case I got too woozy and fell into a puddle. I didn't, but at one point I was afraid I would.

My husband brought home pizza and it was quickly clear that he never ate lunch. Holy smokes stay out of his ravenous cranky way! Despite the fact that I went back to working in the garage after supper, I had visitors who joined me out there and also inform me that I was apparently supposed to give Kale a bath and put him to bed. What happened after that wasn't pretty. We'll just summarize and say that I can still wrestle our two year old out of his clothes, am not afraid of getting drenched in bathwater, and my husband is good at sitting there watching those things unfold. I put Kale to bed. My husband helped me re-dress/sanitize my thumb. I went back to work in the garage. My husband went to bed.

I went headed to bed around midnight and before I even got into bed, Kale was joining us in bed. He kicked my husband all night. I can't say that I don't think my husband had it coming....

And that my friends, was our Fifth of July. I think next year that maybe I will have a different kind of fifth of something on standby...

Fouth of July Fun

2010-07-04T21:23:00.003-05:00

In true Fourth of July flair, we decided to buy fireworks this year. We introduced them to the kiddo last night. He pretty much wasn't a fan of sparklers (us holding, him watching) or anything else you would think that a toddler might like. The surprise is that he LOVES watching roman candles go off. Kids...

We had round 2 tonight. We bought more stuff like tanks, chickens, brighter sparklers, parachute men, and all kinds of things we thought he might like. You guessed it, he still just wants to watch the roman candles. Oh, and there are currently two different parachute men stuck in the trees at the end of our road. Whoops.

While we were out, it started to sound like a small war was taking shape around us. We live in the country, so there is no limit to what you can set off out here. Somebody close by loves firecrackers (the kind that have about 100+ simultaneously going off) and somebody else or maybe even the same somebody has artillery shells. Really, there have been a couple of booms that could have been a house blowing up for all we know. Seriously, its that loud.

Have you ever tried putting a two year old to bed in the midst of what sounds like a war? Yeah, he lasted about 10 minutes in his bed before he came looking for his daddy. Meanwhile, I bet the dog is out there wondering when the ducks will start falling out of the sky...he is trained to hunt and associates those loud booms with gunshot.

Seriously, it sounds like a war out there!

Saturday morning adventure

2010-07-03T12:49:00.002-05:00

Our morning consisted of:

Ep trying to leave our table at Frontier diner before we ever even sat down (Kale was trying to be in charge).

Kale getting a haircut and then pooping in his underwear while playing at the Thomas table. That resulted in poop on the bathroom floor, Kale, and the changing table as we tried to clean him up. We all came out alive but the only worn once pair of underwear went into the trash.

Kale got a tatoo at the place where we bought Ep's shoe inserts.

Kale saw a bulldozer and yelled about it.
Ep: Oh Lord
Kale: Oh Ward (Lord) a bullbozer!
Parents laughing led to Kale: Howhy (holy) Mowhy (moly) a bullbozer!
Me (trying to catch my breath): Oh God
Kale: Oh God, a bullbozer!
Kale: Howhy Mowhy oh Ward.

We recovered from laughing and were told: I need to go pee pee. I told Ep to stop at the first parking lot so Kale could pee. 15 parking lots, a red light, and five minutes later he pulls into a parking lot. We had a wet car seat. Then there was some verbage...

We are home and working on naptime. Well, two of us are. The other one went to run.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Altrec Order

2010-06-29T09:00:00.004-05:00

EDITOR'S NOTE: UPDATED INFO AT END OF POST!

For his birthday, I ordered a pair of Sole Signature DK Response inserts for his shoes.

He has a lot of foot pain and needs something to help alleviate this pain while he is running (as well as after he runs). He wanted to give these nifty shoe inserts a try. So, I ordered them.

This is what they are supposed to look like when you recieve them. This is what my husband's looked like when he took them out of the package....
They look extra comfy, right?

Maybe not.

I have contacted the company and am curious to see how they fix the problem.

The inserts are made by Sole. The order was placed through Altrec.com

They might want to start by not shipping heat molded inserts to the South in the heat of summer in a very flexible envelope. Lately, the daytime temperature here has been over 95 degrees with a heat index of 105+, so when the mailperson folded the flexible envelope and shoved these into our black mailbox...they might as well have been thrown into the oven!

In the meantime, anyone know somebody who has a foot shaped like this???

UPDATE:

The company (altrec.com) originally wanted me to print out their pre-paid postage return label and return the inserts. Since they can't do inventory swap at thier warehouse, they said I could either wait until they receive the return and give me credit or I could go ahead and just order another pair (pay for these a second time) and then be credited when they receive my return.

It took a couple of emails, but they saw my point on customer service and integrity and were willing to go ahead and work through this with me. That is, until they realized that they no longer have any size 14 inserts in stock. To make it better, they don't know when they will receive more inventory of the inserts either.

I am going to send them back. I will get my credit. I will be purchasing another pair from another retailer and paying for shipping from them (which was free on altrec.com).

My husband will get his inserts....he will, he will!

What the heck is blogfrog?

2010-06-28T15:03:00.002-05:00

I have been tweeting and facebooking (is that a word yet, or did I just invent it?) a lot lately about blogfrog. If your name is Sue and I call you mom...ignore the rest of this post because you don't need another Tetris or Ebay!

Ok, back to Blogfrog. My favorite aspect of Blogfrog is that it allows anyone reading my blog to interact with one another. I have had several of my friends say that they read "such and such's blog" that they saw on my blog roll. Well, now you can all interact with each other and tons of other folks who are active in the blogging world. You don't have to have a blog to interact and anyone with a Blogfrog account (it is FREE! and there is no spam!) can answer posts or start new posts. I would love to see some of you start interacting in my Blogfrog community.

You can learn more about Blogfrog here

Even better, you can check out my little bitty needs some people to start interacting community right here

Just fyi...don't like my topics? That is fine! Start a new one...pretty much any topic is welcome!

AND, AND, AND this is a big one....got a suggestion on how I can grow or make my community more appealing? Let me know!

A note from the teacher...

2010-06-18T13:51:00.006-05:00

All this madness started with a note from Kale's teacher a few weeks ago. She watched me pull the note out and read it. She then laughed at me because her theory had been right. My eyes about feel out of my head. The note was to let me know, that despite it probably being a shock to us (his parents), Kale was ready to start wearing underwear. After I got done picking my eyeballs (they bugged out) and chin up off the floor, I laughed too. The only word I could muster: REALLY?

She told me he had been asking to "go" during the day at school and was pretty much staying dry in his pull-up. Meanwhile, at home, he was pretty much avoiding the potty. No amount of asking him if he needs to go, asking him to sit and try, or just waiting for him to say he needed to go was working.

I took Kale and the note home. On the drive home, I found myself a little sad by the idea of my little boy leaving the diapers behind...yes, I know this sounds insane...who in thier right mind would mourn leaving behind the cost of buying and changing diapers! Still, it was just another reminder that my baby is quickly becoming a big boy...ugh! We arrived at home and Ep came out ot help us unload from the car and I handed him the note. His eyeballs hit the driveway and I scrambled to grab them...ok, not really, but they did bug out! I believe the only word he managed was: Really?

So, we went inside and Kale put on underwear. He was on his third pair by bedtime. We weren't so sure he was ready for this. The next day at school, he proved just how much of a different kid he is there. He stayed dry ALL DAY!

Since then, its been a journey. He still has accidents quite frequently at home. I am thinking about moving his potty to the kitchen area, as that seems to be where he pees in the floor the most (and then tells me to "fix it mommy"). Just this morning, he created not one but two puddles there. They were a few inches apart because he tried to inch his way toward the bathroom while clamping his legs together. I tried not to laugh or groan at him. Spend a day with us right now and it will be clear to you that we don't know what we are doing with this whole potty training business. We just know there is a lot of frustration, confusion, and a little bit of humor involved.

Oh, and we are thankful that the note from the teacher was not similar to the ones we can't help but expect to get when he is older....

That story

2010-06-14T13:25:00.004-05:00

Editor's note: This was written two days ago. I wanted to ponder it and meant to publish it. Then I got my feelings hurt by my husband and wasn't very inspired to hit the "publish" button. In fact, I thought about erasing this whole thing. Hey, I am who I am. If nothing else, I am honest. But here it is...so go ahead...get on with my THAT story.

My heart has been breaking lately for the victims of the flash flood here in Arkansas. As of today, there are 20 people who had life taken from them as a result of this fast and furious flood. Its made me think about some things. And it makes me wonder....and I just heard Tim McGraw sing about "My Best Friend"....so here is where I am.

Do you have a story that is THAT story? You know, one that you never get tired of telling, the one that means so much to you? It might be a story that makes you smile, cry, laugh, or all of the above. I have a couple of THAT stories. I can't tell you my one favorite, but I can tell you two my "tied for first place" favorites.

They are:

The story of Kale's arrival and the lessons he taught us (and continues to teach us)

The story of God throwing Ep at me

Most of you know the one about Kale, so here is my Ep story.

I should tell you that I like telling this story not just because its how I met my best friend and love of my life, but because its also one of my best examples of how God reminded me of some things. I should also tell you that this is the abbreviated (yet still long) version.

I was dead set on being in charge of my life at the time. I made my own decisions. I did what I wanted, when I wanted, how I wanted, and nobody ever better try to tell me different. I was 23 and knew all I needed to know in life. Are you laughing yet? I was entering my final year of college, dating a guy to which I had once been engaged, and trying to figure out what was going to be my path after my professional stint of being a college student was over. I knew how many kids I was going to have, how far apart they would be in age...I knew it all. The thing was, so did God. See, this was before I truly acknowledged the fact that God was in control and my life was His. I believed in God, felt entitled to a certain life because of my belief in God, and talked the talk without walking the walk. As much as I fought God on it, he threw Ep at me. I walked in to all four of my classes that fall to find this guy sitting in each and every class. In class, I mentioned my dad being a state trooper. I walked to my truck after class and found a note: "Call me....xxx-xxxx. Ep" and I still remember looking around and wondering how he knew which truck was mine. I later asked him that. He gave me his standard--"I don't know." Ten plus years later, I can tell you how...he is watching when you don't realize it...and he is much more observant and knowledgeable than he lets on to be. He knew which truck was mine because he had either purposely or coincidentally noticed me getting in/out of my truck at some point. Will he admit it now...nope...claims he has no idea...doesn't remember. I didn't call him. See, he wasn't in my plan. But he was in God's. So after class the next day, Ep approached me and asked me if I knew of Capt Fletcher from the state police. I told him no, but I bet my dad knew him because my dad seems to know everyone in this state, especially the people who wear or once wore uniforms. Ep laughed. He understood. He told me that his dad (Capt Fletcher, yet retired) does know my dad. Turns out, his parents remember when my mom was pregnant with me. Despite the fact that I was supposedly exclusively dating this guy from my past...I started going to lunch with Ep. There were times that lunch turned into dangerously close to dinner time and we were still at our lunch spot. And that still makes me laugh. We once spent 3 plus hours in a Taco Bell in Fort Smith. Our butts fell asleep. We didn't care. The people who worked there must have thought we were insane. At times we would sit there in complete silence for minutes on end, yet it wasn't uncomfortable and most of the time we were looking deeply into the other person's eyes. I know that sounds mushy. Really, it was the first time I remember feeling like someone was looking into my eyes and seeing straight into my heart and soul. Honestly, that is how it felt. Every great once in a huge blue moon while, we still have one of those moments.

Eventually, it came to a point where I needed to make a decision. I was ready to cut things off with my boyfriend and see where things went with Ep. Then I chickened out. I took the safe route...the route that was at least familiar, despite not being sure if it was the path I wanted for my fiuture anymore. Then God reminded me who was in charge and gave me a swift kick in the hiney. To this day, that journey brings a sly smile to my face. Its not just a special story about me and Ep, but also one about how God will lead you down the path you need even when you don't know the best path to take. I now know that that other guy wasn't the one for me. I would have never respected him the way that a wife should respect her husband (which is the way I respect Ep...really, quit laughing...I do!!!!). I would have never seen the world the way I have. I would not be who I am now. I wouldn't know that I love adventure, that the world is truly bigger than me, that I love to climb, and I don't know if I would know what its like to be loved for just who I am (even on my bad days). This path that God kicked my hiney down...the path with Ep...its exactly the path for me.

Of course, God knows that Ep and I have struggled (what couple hasn't?) and that we have had our share of speed bumps, frustrations, tears, and moments of doubt. Yet here we are. Ep is my other half. I still know who I am, but yet I would feel so lost without him. He and I both have grudgingly made changes as we adapt ourselves to what "we" need instead of what "one" of us wants/needs. We don't slow down often enough to really just sit and look into each other's eyes...we have too many distractions such as this noisy two year old who rules our home, iPhones, tv's, and the list could go on. I once asked Ep if he remembers much about when he first met me or what he thought of me the first time he noticed me. His reply? "I wondered who you thought you were." I don't think he meant that in a quizzical/deep way. I think it was more along the lines of "who does this chick think she is anyway?" with a roll of the eyes. Well, that should have been his first clue to run...and run fast. He didn't. Thank goodness. He chased me. He chased me until I chased him back and that is when he ran. And boy oh boy did we go on some adventures with all that chasing and running. Some were good adventures and some weren't so much fun (yet just as life altering and lesson teaching).

The bottom line is this. When tragedy strikes in a way that shocks me, I always ponder it for a while. This latest tragedy made me wonder if I were taken off this earth in a swift moving flood, would my husband know how much I love, value, and cherish him? Would he know that I still laugh out loud at the story of how we became (and are still becoming) "us"? Would the man who is constantly moving forward, for once, not roll his eyes at me looking backwards in time? Would people know how much I love him and how much he means to me? Would he know that he is my THAT story?

I hope so.

Long weekends

2010-05-31T20:11:00.002-05:00

The sun is setting on another holiday weekend that has somehow breezed right by us. When June 8th gets here, I will have spent a sum total of 8 days at my desk over the period of the previous 6 weeks. So, I really can't complain too much.
My first week missing in action was vacation. I then spent two days at my desk before jumping on a plane for Slovakia. After 11 days in airplanes, airports, and two differen Slovakia towns, I arrived back home not sure what day it was or even what time it was. I spent a recovery day last Monday (which ended up being a day of having a sick little boy with me) and my other recovery day last Friday, so this past week was a 3 day week followed by a four day weekend.
This next weekend, my brother is getting married. I am celebrating that fact by taking off on Friday to just...well, I don't exactly know...maybe look for another dress or maybe just take a big long deep breath and stare at the reality of my little brother growing up. Then I will charge forward into the weekend of fun and celebration and change. The following Monday, I/we (logistics aren't solid yet) will come back home....and I will continue to just be...and that will get me to the next day, June 8th. I suppose that is when the realities and normalcy of work will set in again...