Saturday, October 25, 2008

Brought to you by . . .

Off to the right, or at least in this present format, I have my blogroll. You see, I'm not new to the blog reading thing, I'm just new to the blog writing thing. I've followed most of these women for a few years. They have taught me much and I figured that I'd love on them a moment.

Our Story- This is the allergy friendly blog by my husband's cousin, Janeen. One of her sons has extreme food allergies and it is through her blog that I have learned almost everything that I know about keeping children safe in food allergy situations. If I don't know it, I'll e-mail her. She'll entertain you with stories about the boys, their love for the Mucinex family, her quest to keep her son safe re: his allergies, her hubs who works hard, hunts and loves his family. She'll take you in and out of appointments, in and out of stores, in and out of schools and making you giggle most of the way.
Boo Mama- She has an intense! love for Christ, family, cheese and Cheese It's. She'll dazzle you with food selections that are only low in calories, pants that she dreams of, the hair wizard, Steinmarts, Walmarts and stunt pillows. She's even kind enough to give Congealed Salad 101 to us Northerners.
Big Mama- She'll tell you tales of her beautiful daughter, Caroline, her love for fashion and how she drives her mama crazy with it. A love for peppermint patties, Target (even though they moved across town), HEB and Fashion Friday.
The Pioneer Woman- A spaz middle child, just like myself, with Marlboro Man as her hubs and her cast of 4 children. She'll teach you how to cook awesome things, show you photos of their critters around the farm, and give you great stories of her brother, Mike. She'll be happy if you stop by and throw in a load of laundry.
Lots of Scotts- Mama J- with surgeon hubs and her gaggle of triplets. K-, P- and R- will keep you rolling in laughter as you read their daily adventures. Mama J- keeps it real, though. She's busy bringing her young'ns up in the eyes of the Lord, even though they might be cross-eyed from time to time.
Daring Young Mom- Kathryn, hubs, Laylee and Magoo on their adventures in life while trying to be a little more health conscious, disaster prepared and groovin' with the motorcycle men.
Rocks In My Dryer- You'll read Rat Contracts, Letters to Mice, tales of ant invasion, live blogging tornadoes and tips on easier living with Works for Me Wednesday.
Big Blueberry Eyes- Michelle takes you on her journey of raising Kayla and Lucas all the while her husband is serving in the military. She's blogging on Down Syndrome this month, but soon we'll be reading more about her husband's upcoming year away from the family. She's good about sharing her free finds on Friday, opening our minds to misinformation that might be out there about DS, gives us her list of gratefulness on Sundays and some fun little ditties in between. Michelle is the one I should thank for my pork chop recipe and for giving me the idea of taking K- to the Lowe's Build and Grow building clinics.
Life with Hannah and Lily- Rachel takes us on the journey that she goes on with her husband, Brien, in raising their daughter Lily along with their up and down yo's concerning grief and the drowning death of their daughter, Hannah. She shares with us her Farmer's Market finds, her love for good food, talents with card creation (she sells Stampin' Up, if you need a fix) and her job as a teacher.
Cake Wrecks- I found this site through Life with Hannah and Lily and LOVE it! I have to tell you that some professional cakes are absolutely so wrong that they are hilarious. If you need a good laugh, check CW. I submitted a photo of a baby shower cake. We were "congulated" and I just felt that Cake Wrecks would love it!
5 Minutes for Mom- Twin moms taking you through their life in Canada, thought provoking posts, giggly posts and giveaways of neat stuff that almost anyone could use!

Of course, this is just a very brief description of my own about these great blogs. Check them out for yourself and see why I love them so much!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Scratching my head

Did you ever look back at your first post and think, "Oh heck, that was really lame!" My first post falls into the category of rambliciously unentertaining. I think that I was overtired from hubs and K- sick. I'm better now, though. Wanna read me ramble on about something else? I promise to be funny! But really today, I'll love on the people in my house.

Hubs. He's the love of my life. No, truly. You see, we met at the university. I was sitting on the floor outside of the Climatology class I was to take. I was reading Shakespeare. (Not for fun, but for a class.) Then I heard this voice. I looked up and there he was. Oh heavens me. I tried to look like I was reading Shakespeare and apparently he tried to look like he wasn't paying attention. He sat behind me in class and the first thing he ever said was, "How much for that book?" Ah, yes. He is the poster child of romantic things to say. It was sweet though. The next class he sat down the table from me. Each class he moved one more chair over until he was sitting next to me. Then he did it. He asked me out. My response? "I don't mean to shoot you down, but technically, I'm still dating someone." He took my number and said that he would call me that weekend. I ran home and gave a phone call to the dope that I was still dating. I dumped him and waited for Hubs to call. There was no call! We ended up dating and it accidentally fell on Valentine's Day. 2 years later, we were engaged. 1 year after that, we were married.

K-. She's our miracle baby. We adopted K- from the county south of us. We do truly look at her as such a gift. A gift that giggles and wiggles. A gift with such a funny sense of humor. So caring at times and you want to string her up by her toes other times. She knows that she is adopted and has relationships with siblings. She's in the mood to have drawn out conversations while Mommy is on the phone. She loves playing with and melting mommy's soap away to stumps in the bathtub. She loves to make mud soup, dig for worms and relocate harvestmen all while in a fancy church dress. She wants her hair to grow long like "Pokie-hontas, Mom!" You can whisper the word "chocolate" from rooms away and she'll come running. She has sudden bionic ears with the "c" word is mentioned.

So for my audience of 1 (thanks, Janeen!), I hope that this was a more entertaining post!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Feet First!

Here are my size 6 1/2's jumping into the world o' blogging. (Or blawging, as it is with some.) I've got some folks out there that I've been lurking on for years, so I figured that I'd better get with it and pull myself out of anonymity. Am I grammatically correct? Uh, no. Will I always try to use spell check? Certainly, but my spelling is actually not that bad. Can I use a semi colon in the way that it is intended? I'd have to say no, but I can definitely learn how!

So who am I? Hmmm. I suppose that I could launch onto some great philosophical bit, but I'll spare you of that. Instead, I should start the blog with a really long story. So, here goes!

This past weekend, we traveled with my in-law's 7 hours from our home to Chicago. The road trip was actually quite pleasant and filled with updates of familyness and political voting choices. We got "to the 'Cago", as my daughter would call it, safe and sound. Our plan was to hang out that night, then have a big day of birthday celebration the next day. We tucked our daughter in and she fell asleep immediately. "Too easy," I thought. At around 12:30 AM, our little bundle of sleep joy hopped up and went on her way to the bathroom. I was laying there, half awake, listening. Then my husband jabbed me in the side. "I think that she just puked." Fantastic. I checked and she in her brand new Disney Princess nightgown that Aunt Kristin had just given her was a mess. Poor thing. Oh, and this was just the beginning. This went on for intervals of 10-20 minutes for the next few hours. We were in the finished basement their home, so we weren't interrupting anyone except for my in-law's. During a lull, I called our pediatrician's 24 hour nurses line and explained that I wouldn't normally call for the stomach flu, but that our daughter had just had a flu shot about 36 hours earlier and I was concerned that there was some serious shot reaction. She was having an injection site reaction, so it was worth the asking. She felt that it was the stomach flu (or virus, as it is supposed to be called), but that she was concerned that the shot spot had gotten to 2" in diameter, raised, red and warm. Ugh.

The night provided a few hours of sleep. God heard my prayers. K- got up at 5:30 AM and said that she was feeling, "much better, Mom!" She was thirsty. I gave her a Propel water that was stowed away. About 10 minutes later, propel did just what it's name suggests. Ugh. Another hour of illness. We weren't home. I'm always prepared for this at home. I had to tell K- that we wouldn't be able to go to the neat birthday party. The birthday party was to be at Sweet and Sassy. The little girls were getting haircuts and manicures. My daughter's hair has only been cut by mommy while she was sitting on the bathroom counter. I was excited that she would get an actual professional cut to what mommy has done to her noggin over the years. Everyone went off in their different directions and K- and I were left downstairs. We watched a lot of TV. We don't have super duper cable with a million channels, so it was great to watch a bunch of new stuff. When everyone returned, she was allowed to re-enter the main family pool for the party. We were having Italian for dinner. She was having chicken and stars. She didn't really eat it, though. She also declined on cake. Tell me what 4 year old out that declines cake, much less mine? Ugh, again.

The next day was our day to go home. On our way home, we wanted to make good on our promise to take K- to the Field Museum to see Sue. We got down to the lakefront and we found traffic. Much more traffic for a Sunday morning than we expected. Hmmm. Turns out that there was a Bears game at Soldier Field. The fun part? After we sat in a ton of traffic to find parking, we found out that the parking for the Field Museum reverts over to stadium parking and is $45.00 per car. NO KIDDING! I about had a heart attack. My mother-in-law is disabled with rheumatoid arthritis and has a handicap parking permit. I asked them about handicapped parking for her. "Oh, we don't have that near the museum during games. You have to park a ways away and shuttle back over." Thanks. So, we did what any other set of parents trying to scrape together some bit of fun for their 4 year old-- we had the in-law's sit in the traffic curve with their hazards on in front of the museum and we ran in. Literally. We have a reciprocal museum pass, so we didn't have to pay. Good thing, too! We were in the museum for about 15 minutes total. We saw Sue, their Tyrannosaurus Rex, nature exhibits and their African display. In the time that we were running through, my in-law's called three times. Then, we decided to divide and conquer. The hubs and K- went for the penny machine and I went to the gift shop. Ordinarily, I wouldn't have purchased a t-shirt, but the kid got the bummer end of the trip, so why not? We ran out the door, down the steps and hadn't an incident with anyone official during our quick stay. Sad though.

When we got home, we got all snuggled in our beds and fell fast asleep. Hubs was up watching a movie so he was coming to bed later. Though, I woke up later and didn't see him there. He was on the couch. Hmmm.

The next morning confirmed it. Hubs was down. He had it. He said that he'd be okay. He'd go get K- from preschool, bring her home and have her dine on odd foodstuffs and watch far too much TV. He declined my offer to stay home from work. He dragged himself to get her, smacked her head into the car door so hard that he left a bump and bruise. I came home and he looked to be a very broken husband and daddy. The illness was intensifying.

In the end, I thought that I was going to have to rush him to the hospital. I admit that my husband is not very cheery or a good sport when it comes to illness', but he suffers from pretty intense intestinal issues as it is. The intestinal funk is unkind to most, but particularly unkind to those with issues anyhow.

He hasn't been to work all week. I took him to the doctor yesterday to find out that he scored Rotavirus! Oh, yes! (Insert much sarcasm and pity here.) The good news is that he is much better. The bad news was that it took me an hour and a half to fully bleach, scrub and Lysol the bathroom. But, bed linens are changed, door handles and light switches are Lysol'd, floors are scrubbed and laundry is hanging to dry. I even made it to the grocery! I call the day a success!