Little Boogers I Call Kids

A good friend of mine is starting a new job today after being off work for nearly two years.  She has done a great job being a stay at home mom, but she felt like it was time to go back to work.  I worked with her when she was pregnant and I kept telling her that little Ava was going to be a booger. Ava was going to be child that caused her baldness.  I hit the nail on the head.  Ava is a pistol!  She is cutest little girl, such an angelic face.  Ava like my little Sarah is a hand full.  Sarah gets wound up real easy and when she does, you better look out. There is no telling what she will do.  Anything from dancing like a stripper and I have no idea how she learned to do that, honestly (on a side note, we are going to sign her up for hip hop classes) to sticking her naked, freshly showered bum on her sister's pillow and freaking her out.  You just never know what she is going to do.  She can be defiant and strong willed, but darnit, I can be more that way than she can and one day she will learn that. My friend has called me several times about Ava's behavior and how to handle her and I just give her my honest opinion and what I do when Sarah has acted like that.

Anyway, my point of this is we have these kids that drive us crazy, sending us to our closets hiding and crying, making us cry while in public because no matter how hard you spank, they are still misbehaving.  I was crying in Chick Fil A on Saturday, she wouldn't be still and eat, she was all over the place, meaning squirming in her seat, pushing the table, making gigantic messes, spilling ranch dressing on her pants, I mean, it's constant.  It's like everywhere we go everyone knows her name and I'm sure they are glad when we are gone.  She can't make up her mind what she wants to eat or drink in restaurants, I try to narrow her choices to make it easier for her, still doesn't work.  She is so hard headed and just so hell bent sometimes, but I have to remind her that I'm the mother, I'm the boss and I can be more hard headed and stubborn than she can be and I will win.  As crazy (funny, I mean) and wide open as she is, she is my more sensitive child. Mike works nights and he leaves around 9:20, the kids are usually on their way to bed by that time and he gives them lots of hugs and kisses.  Sarah stands at her open bedroom window and yells for Mike as he is backing out of the driveway and crying because she feels like she hasn't gotten enough hugs and kisses.  She loves hugs and kisses. I don't love Maggie any less than Sarah, but I love them different.  Maggie is my go to girl.  She sends me text messages and says how crazy her sister is.

My friend that just went back to work, today is her first day and I think she cried all the way there because she missed her baby.  Something about those little boogers just tug at your heart strings. They drive us crazy, but we love them so much at the same time, it makes it nearly impossible to feel relieved about having a little bit of a break from all of the madness.

Letters of Intent - January 13 Edition

Dearest Husband and Kids,

For the love of everything sane, PLEASE quit asking me for this or that, PLEASE quit asking me where stuff is located in the house, PLEASE stop "ordering" me around!  Ya'll are driving me crazy!  It's always, where's this and that, hey can you do me a favor, etc etc etc.  Ya'll don't do anything for me except give me a hard time about everything!  I'm going on strike and I'm doing anything for anyone except myself.  There I said it and have a nice day. Good Bye.

Ready For A New Beginning

Thank goodness 2011 is over!  It was a year filled with ups and downs.  I had to have a shunt put in my noggin because of high fluid pressure.  It sounds pretty serious, but it was fairly easy!  No headaches, which is huge and a new hair style!  Since they had to shave my head, I think I'm going to keep it really pixie short and keep the color gray! I think I really like it.  I mean I miss my hair sometimes, but this is sooooo easy!

My mother had gastric bypass in April and found out she had ovarian cancer.  She just finished treatment the first of December, had a CT scan on the 29th and is completely cancer free!  Praise God!  She had lots of ups and downs through out her treatment, the first treatment almost killed her, they changed her meds and treatment got back on schedule but she was staying sicker than she was supposed to so they looked at her gall bladder and they had to remove it, after that, it was smooth sailing with her treatments, well except the normal chemo sickness. But that has all passed and she is on the mend, her and her sweet little bald head.

Anyway, I'm going to try to start blogging again.

Happy New Year to Everyone!

Menu Plan Monday 8/1/11

As part of my household overhaul, I'm also planning my weekly meals.  The whole idea of this is to keep things S.I.M.P.L.E.  I have to keep telling myself that. Our lives are chaotic enough with work, kids, homework, sports, church, so why torture ourselves?  I'm making that change in my life, because I just can't take it anymore!  So here is my menu for the week!

Monday - Dinner with Friends

Tuesday - Mike has to work Court so we are having soup

Wednesday - Grilled Chicken Salad

Thursday - Smoked sausage with kraut and corn

Friday - payday and no tax weekend so probably shopping and eating out! 

If you run out of ideas for meals for your family, hop on over to I'm An Organizing Junkie and see what others are having!  Hope everyone has a great day!

Organizing Project Week One

So I've decided that my house and family need a huge overhaul.  Last school year, we were all so unorganized and we were forgetting stuff and deadlines and I felt like a total failure of a mother. So I decided that since Mike will be working nights, we are taking the kids out of daycare so they can come home afterschool, I'm going to make some major changes.  We moved in our house 5 years ago and it's been the same since, UNORGANIZED, and I'm D.O.N.E.!!!!  So I decided to start simple....the buffet in the dining room.  Here are some before and after pictures of said buffet. 

Next week, I'm working on the living room.....the bookshelf and all of the magazines I let pile up underneath the coffee table and end tables. 

Wordless Wednesday

                                              

How Much More Can I Take?

I really don't know the answer to that question.  I guess only God knows.  I started having headaches back in January and been seeing doctors and having MRIs and CT scans and seeing more doctors.  A neurologist told me that he didn't think whatever was going on in my head was a big deal and he would let me know.  I haven't heard anything.  The neurosurgeon I wanted to see sent me to an ENT, I wasn't sure why, but I guess he knows what he's doing.  So I went to see the ENT on Tuesday and he showed me the scans showed me where all of my spinal/brain fluid was leaking around my brain and where it shouldn't be.....around one of my eyes around the optic nerves, not good.  Now excuse me for not using the correct terminology, but he also told me that the pressure on my brain was elevated, causing the pressure headaches.  I said so is this serious and he said YES.  It could be treated with diurectics and if that doesn't keep the fluid down, then they will have to place a shunt in there so it drain into my stomach.  The only way they can test the pressure is to do a spinal tap.  Also, he informed me that if the pressure gets too bad, then my brain will bust through my skull, again, not correct terminology, and they will have to do surgery, remove that part of my skull so that can REMOVE that part of my brain that has broken through! Okay, wow....I'm at a loss for words.  I go see the neurosurgeon in two weeks and he will have the final say on what to do about this.  I'm scared, every time I have a little bit of pain in my head, which is all the time, all I can think is what if there is too much pressure and bust a vein and have an aneurysm and drop dead?  I don't know even know if that is real possibility, but that's what I keep thinking.  I'm ready for some answers, but I'm scare of what those answers might be.

So in the meantime of all of this, Sarah, the 5 year old, has been diagnosed with ADD.  I knew she would be like this, her daddy is.  That's okay, but we had a rough year of kindergarten.  Her doctor said she was borderline because she only has problems in school, nowhere else.  So we have started her on medication.  Who knows if anyone will even read this, just don't give me crap about giving my kid medication.  But since school has been out, she has been having meltdowns about everything!  Being hot, cold, hungry, sleepy, tired, legs hurt, blah blah blah.  She goes from 0 to 60 in about 1 second!  It's driving me crazy!  I want to choke her, but of course, I'm not.  But it sends me over the edge and hiding in my bathroom crying.  Hopefully she will calm down when we get in a routine. 

AND during all of this, in April, my mother had gastric bypass surgery.  She was doing fantastic and went back for the 3 week post-op appointment, they told her they found cancer.  At the time they were not sure of the source, so that was scary.  After weeks of testing, they came to the conclusion that it is fallopian tube cancer.  Less than 1% of women who get cancer in their reproductive organs get this type of cancer.  The doctor told her her prognosis was good, so that was wonderful news.  So she had her ports put in earlier this week and started treatment today. I got to go see her during treatment and take her some lunch today.  She is such an incredibly strong woman and I feel so selfish.  I called her this morning whining about Sarah not having shoes when we got to daycare and I had to drive 10 minutes out of the way to walmart and buy her some and take them back to daycare and wah wah wah....I was like how selfish am I?  Here I am whining to my mother about "not catching a break" all the while she is on her way to the first of 12 chemo treatments.  I am so sad over her having this beast inside her body.  She is my best friend and I can't imagine her not being in my life for one single day.  I'm not thinking she's on her death bed, but it just makes me realize that she won't be around forever and I will have to go on without her and it makes me so sad.  I try to be strong for her, but she is the one having to be strong for me! I cried when I saw her getting her treatment because she just shouldn't be there and she is the one telling me it's gong to be alright.  I'm such a weinie and it makes me mad.  I'm certain she will kick this beast and be just fine.  I pray and pray every day.