Are you listening?

Oh, I am listening. I am listening too much. Is that possible? Did you know that people listen to you? Everyone, even though they might not admit it, is listening and watching someone throughout the day. They are and you are! Analyze yourself. I dare you. When you go out today or tomorrow see who you watch. When you talk to someone, see which part of the conversation you are pondering. Sometimes we ponder and pick up unhealthy things. Sometimes we have attitudes that we want to deal with, that we need to deal with. Then we see someone else with that same attitude and say, "Well they do it!". I do this same thing and then get mad at my kids when they do something that their sibling does.

This same process can happen for the good. Although it may disturb your way of thinking, you might ponder something that you know would be good for you. For instance, when you see or hear something about your health. You may process everything you eat and what's in those things. You may for a while, or a day, or a week, and if you are really good a month, go and change some of your eating habits. This is good for you. You may keep up with it.

Last week someone had shared something they were reading. It applied to her currant situation and she was sharing how it corrected the way she was thinking. She read how an understanding wife is from God. She wasn't trying to be mean to her husband. She is not a person who comes off with a bad attitude or a nagging personality. She simply wanted her husband to be around more. She had read that sentence and it changed her attitude. She thought about being understanding when he couldn't be there and wanted to. She understood that he after 9 years still can't put things away and clean up after himself. It wasn't something that would make her love him less. She chose to love him more by being understanding.

Well, she shared this with me. Now I have told all of you that I adore my husband. He isn't perfect, but he is the perfect match for me. He had a horrible week last week. He had worked late almost everyday. I was getting pretty weary by Thursday. He had told me that he was going to have all of Friday off since he had worked all week, day and night. No problem. I can make it until then.

Friday came. He wasn't home. He got calls from 3 different avenues, and each needed him. I smiled and said, "It's fine. No problem." I was definitely having a problem, but he didn't need me to tell him that. I am sure he already knew. The day flew by and I didn't see my husband until about 9:30pm. I was exhausted. I had grocery shopped with all 4 kids and my mood was being tested. I was walking on the edge of a cliff, and if I wasn't careful, I would have loved to have jumped.

Then this wonderful email popped into my head. An email saying how one little sentence had straightened my friends thinking out. She didn't write it to me to rub it in. She didn't even know what my week was like or how I was alone for 99% of it. She was simply sharing something cool that had happened to her heart that day. Well isn't God's timing funny? I got that email, and was reminded of it throughout my day. I called my friend.

"Woman!" I said. "What the heck is the matter with you? Why in the world would you share something like that? I wanted to drown in my self pity and be mad and maybe make those around me crawl up to me and bow down or something. Now, I feel like blessing them instead and letting the whole week slide like it doesn't matter. Why? Why? Why did you have to send that to me this week?"

She laughed at me, just like all my good friends do. They laugh at me. They do it because they realize that I need to vent and puke up all that is with in me. They know that I choose to laugh at myself instead of get mad at myself. So they laugh at me! Thank you dear friend for sharing your life change. It has inspired me. It inspired me to think on a better level and to just laugh some more.

So here's my challenge. Find something good to look at, to ponder. Learn to adopt it. Maybe it is something little. It doesn't matter. Little things can add up to something big! Oh, and for goodness sakes, laugh at yourself! It is more fun than yelling. I promise. Would I stear you wrong?

Drama, Drama, Drama!

I don't live a dramatic life. At least, not with in the definition that the media and Hollywood give. I am a happily married woman. I am married to the only man that I will every be married to. He is my other half and I don't wish to be with another man ever. We have a great marriage and relationship. It has come with a lot of work, and even though it probably would rate in the hardest thing I have ever worked on list, it is worth every moment of it. I am surrounded by drama though. It all started with my first born daughter and now with this little bundle. Can't you just see the look on her face? I will tell you exactly what these eyes are saying.

"Look MOM! I am almost 3! I can totally handle this. I don't need you to be any closer than you are! I can do it MYSELF!" Actually some of this was not only said with her eyes, but with her mouth too.

Now, not even 5 minutes into our adventure walk up a creek last week, I had turned around to make sure that our dog hadn't taken off running. With in that 15 seconds, our baby took a couple more steps and lost her footing and went head first into the creek. Of course at the age of 2 1/2 she doesn't know how to swim, so she was head down and breathing in water. Now I would like to point out that she wasn't in any danger. Yes, she snorted up some water, and yes, have we had left her for a few minutes she would have been in trouble, but she is totally fine. No scars, no bruises, just the same wild 2 year old that we always had. I wrote this to show her mood swing after the incident. After the initial confident girl I have pictured above, we got these pictures below.



Her independent creek walking days were over! She would barely let her toes touch the water after that. And instead of the happy go lucky pictures I was hoping for, I got this wonderful look! The eyes are now telling me, "Would you put that stupid camera away and come hold me, NOW!" She was holding a grudge at everyone and everything after that. She was mad at me for taking pictures, mad at daddy for picking her up instead of mommy, and mad at the dumb water for tipping her over. Poor girl. Life is so dramatic!

I can be serious too!

This is my 3rd born, Spiderman. Aren't his cheeks delicious? He has had these things since he was a baby. I can't even begin to count how many times I have gnawed on, or kissed, or blown raspberries on those babies. As I previously said on his brother's post, he is my little analyzer. We call him little professor sometimes, because he studies everything. He was our surprise. After having our perfect little girl and our boisterous boy, we thought we were done having kids. (Ok, dear husband was more done that I was. And, when asked, he will tell you stories of how I made this one happen. We both know that he (Spiderman) was God' plan now.) Anyways, he came with some bumps in the road.

After nursing this little one for 8 months, we discovered that he had food allergies. He was allergic to dairy, eggs, and peanuts. Along with all of this, he suffered from chronic ear infections starting at age 9 months, and had to have tubes put into his ears. He also has asthma. This little guy has been through a lot. He isn't dying from some terminal disease, but everything is tailored around his menu.

I would just like to take a brief moment to point out that all of this is not coming from a hypochondriac of a mother that tries to shelter her child from everything, and overly babies her son. I am not a germaphobic person. I don't disinfect my kitchen counters and table before and after every meal. I don't believe in every syndrome that the world has made up. I think we can make excuses for everything. We found out about the food allergy thing when he started to get hives from head to toe, projectile vomited multiple times, his toungue swelled, his eyes swelled, and he couldn't stop sneezing. All of this from one piece of cereal taken from my husband milk filled bowl. Something was seriously wrong with this kiddo.

We have taken it all in strides though. I relearned how to cook for the family. I have found recipes that everyone likes and we eat them over and over again. We have found a couple fast food places that have things he can eat. All is well. Sort of.

Last week our other son was on his way to the doctor for a misfortunate happening with a bush (read the last post). On this same morning, Spiderman woke up with a blood curdling scream at 6:30 in the morning. I am not a morning person, so when my child began screaming at 6:30am I became panicked as if he had done it in the middle of the night. He was hysterical. I couldn't calm him down. All he could say was my head, my head hurts. I could tell by the cry that this was some serious pain he was having. My husband ran in and helped me get him from the top bunk and take him to our bed, because mommies bed has healing powers. Usually.

He layed their in pain all day. I had given him everything in my arsenal. He had Tylenol and Motrin together every 5 hours. Nothing would dull the pain. He had no movement of his neck. He wouldn't sit up. He wouldn't turn to look at me. He was in trouble. We were already going the doctor that afternoon for his brother and sister, so we just picked him up and brought him along. My dear husband came home early to help me with him. He picked Spiderman up and brought him to the car. The poor little guy screamed from the pain the whole time. He cried the whole time at the doctor. Anytime I would shift in my seat or try to turn him around to get him more comfortable, he would cry.

The doctor saw all of them. First, he looked at Spiderman. He instantly became very worried. This came on so suddenly and he was in so much pain that he knew something could be very wrong. After looking him over he decided to wait a few minutes and decide what to do. He went over and diagnosed the other 2 kids with poison ivy and wrote out the prescriptions for that. Then he went back to Spiderman. After trying to get him to nod his head or look around again, he decided the best idea was to go to the children's hospital ER. He was very concerned that Spiderman had spinal meningitis or an abscess in his neck.

Our friends happen to call dear husband while I was in with the kids. He had decided to stay out in the car and sit with our littlest one who happened to be napping in her car seat. I had been calling him and keeping him posted on what the doctor's thoughts were. When our friends called we had just found out that we needed to go the ER. They were happy to meet us at home to take care of the other 3 kids, and off we went.

You know things aren't good when your doctor calls ahead to the hospital and they are expecting you. Then they whisk you right back to the room and have your baby lying on a table and having a cat scan done within 15 minutes of arriving there. I tell you what, you want horrible thoughts of "what if this" or "what if they find that?" going through your mind, then watch your son get a cat scan. It will increase your prayer life. I promise.

They then had him go to get some X-rays. This was the part that made me chuckle. There were two guys in there early, early 20's that were the tech's. They came in all cheary and asked Spiderman to pose for the x-rays. He was doing great. Then they needed a picture of a bone that could only be seen if your head is completely back. You have to be looking straight up at the ceiling for at least 10 seconds, without moving in order to get this picture. The whole problem is that my son couldn't move his head without extreme pain.

Now let me tell you a little about Spiderman. He is STUBBORN! Even when in the best of moods, which he wasn't even close to, it is hard to get him to do things that he doesn't want to do. This very young x-ray tech was clearly a bachelor, clearly one who didn't have kids, and was out of his league when it came to my son. He tried and tried to get him to cooperate. It wasn't going to happen. My husband and I smirked at each other, because we knew it was going to take a miracle to get this to happen.

Finally, it had occurred to me that they didn't offer him a sticker or toy. I knew from past x-rays that our family has had, that they are stocked back there. I kindly said, "Maybe they would have a Spiderman sticker for you if you move your head for them." The light turned on for the tech and he offered a treasure box with toys. This worked. He got him to move his head.

After that the ER doctor came in checked him out. He wasn't too impressed with Spiderman's symptoms either. He left to find out what the tests said, because the next step in the plan of action was a spinal tap. This is a very painful procedure that us done to get a sample of spinal fluid and test it for spinal meningitis. I was more scared of this test than the actual problem.

About an hour later the doctor came back in, and something started to happen. Spiderman started to snap out of it. He started to talk to us. He started to move around and wiggle on the little hospital bed. He moved his head. The doctor noticed too. He left us for another period of time and then came back to check to see if he was still getting better. He was. The doc left it up to us if we wanted to do the spinal tap or not. He thought that he was getting better and didn't think it was 100% necessary. We agreed.

We still don't know what caused the pain. He still has it to some degree. All the tests came back negative. We are keeping him in prayer. He is and always has been in God's hands. As one wise doctor said to us last year, "I put them back together, and God heals them."

Something to think about. During our time at the ER, my father-in-law was at his church softball league starting a game. He knew everything going on and had asked all the guys to pray. About 20 guys got together to pray for our little guy. It was at that same time when Spiderman started to feel better. I don't know what God did that day. I don't know if something really serious was happening or not. I do know that at one point of my day, I was in tears for my son. We were crying together, him for his pain, and me for him. I choose to believe that God had intervened for my son.

The Naked Truth!

This is my first born son. On this blog of mine, we call him Batman. It is a real honor to him that this name has been given. He was the one who first suggested that it should be used. I had to accept his suggestion. Who could refuse those blue eyes? His father first wooed me in with them, now he has inherited the same ones. I'm toast! Previous to having this jewel of mine, I had his big sister. Man alive! I should have realized how easy it was with her! We sat and played dress up, make up, and baby dolls. She would sit and look at books over and over again. She napped well and slept in until 10am sometimes. We were great together!

Well life changed when this little guy came barrelling into existence. I say barrelling because I find it no coincidence that this ones labor was only an hour and a half long. I could have had this child in the car if we lived any farther away. He was born at the same rate he takes life now. This kid sees something and then does it. No thinking it through, no processing the information. He hits life at 150% at all times. I see him as a race horse ready for the race. He is excited, bucking and jumping at the starting line, and then bam! the race is started and he finds more energy than you would ever expect to find in such a little package. His brother is the total opposite. He is more like a golfer. He looks, analyzes, stares, thinks over the direction he should take, and then does it. Not Batman, he sees what he wants and goes for it.

Well last week was one of those times he shouldn't have gone for it! He is a boy, as you have been told, and well boys in our family have picked up this motto. It has been passed down from generation to generation and now has been picked up by my boy. The motto is, "The world is my urinal!" I am serious. My father-in-law says it, my husband proclaims it, and now my boy practices it too. (I am really sorry. Yes, I really must apologize again. I'm sorry that this is not sounding good, but you wouldn't get the whole story if I didn't tell you the naked truth about how this personality and this motto have issues when put together in one body.)

So my bucking bronco of a son has issues with coming inside and using the bathroom while he is out playing. He has no patience for such a thing. It is a huge waste of time when there is a perfectly good bush that needs to be watered. Luckily we don't have neighbors in the back of us, so I don't get too upset when it happens. Well, he decided to save time and relieve himself the other day; however, it was in front of poison ivy! I won't give you details. You can use your imagination. (A friend of mine said that the bush was getting back at him!)

The poor guy was miserable. We had to go to the doctor and get some medicine. This should have been easy. I thought they would give us some super duper anti-itch cream that would miraculously make him better. Nope! They gave him a 10 day round of steroids. Steroids, as a side effect, make you hyper. So, what already had the energy of a race horse, now has the energy of a race horse on steroids. Isn't there a law against that?

Where have I been?

Well I have stories to tell my friends! I will update you on our week from.....well it wasn't fun. But, it ended well! I will keep you posted!!!! Blah HA HA....keep you posted...you know because I post my blog? Sorry, did I mention that I have been sleep deprived for the past 8 years?

My Grocery Bill!!!!

Well in order to keep you all from fainting, I won't tell you the exact number of what I spend just about every 10 days. It is going up and up and keeps doing it. Inflation has a big blame of course, but the growth of my kids is also a big hit.

As earlier posted, I like to copy things that my sister-in-law does. She has found a way to get the grocery bill down by about 40 dollars a trip. I am always willing to follow a money saving tip so I dove into a new world last month! I am a CVSer!
"A what?" you say.
I'm a CVSer.....aka I now shop at CVS. It is a drug store like Walgreens.


I thought these places were glorified convenience stores that gave you prescriptions quickly without having the 20 minute hastle of finding a parking spot, getting into the huge store, waiting in a huge line, and then waiting an hour and spending $100 dollars on who-knows-what at Super-Walmart. But! I was wrong. CVS, my now 4th stop on grocery day, is my new haven. Just look at what I bought:

These are all normal everyday things. I have to buy some of these things weekly. I at all times have these things in my house and sometimes I have back-ups of these items. What is not normal is what I just spent on these items. I will list these out for you and then tally up what you think I spent today.

Charmin double roll toilet paper rolls 12count x 4 packages

ALL laundry detergent 32loads x 2 bottles

2 toothbrushes

1 can of OFF bug spray

2 cans of Lysol disinfectant wipes (can't have enough of these with the dirt bags!)

Size 6 Pampers mega pack (that's 40 diapers, which doesn't sound like a lot, but this is the biggest sized diaper. The package sizes get smaller when the size gets bigger.)

2 tubes of Colgate Toothpaste

Huggies refill wipes 232 count

Carmel Nips (these weren't on sale, but hubby is addicted and I can only find them here)

I buddy soap bar

Well originally my total was $79.12. I was gasping for air. This didn't include my other 3 stops I had to make in order for us to eat this week! My husband would have made me sleep outside. But here is why I shop here! My total out of pocket expense was: (drum roll please............)

$44. 67!!!!!!!!!!

I had $9 dollars in coupons and then these wonderful things called Extra Care Bucks (ECB's) came in and saved the day. If you want to learn more about this, then here is a website that helps explain it all. www.iheartcvs.com

To give you a small idea of how this happened I will tell you this. I got the $6.99 toothbrushes for free. I got paid $0.50 (yes paid!) to buy the Colgate toothpastes. I paid only $4.49 for $9 worth of laundry detergent. I also paid $3.50 each for the packages of 12 double rolls of Charmin toilet paper. (I never buy Charmin. We are now getting the royal treatment in the bathroom!) And, I just got diapers for about half price, and they are Pampers, which I quit buying years ago due to prices! Now I have to find a place to store all this!

Thank you CVS for paying me to shop there. And, thank you for putting up with my 4 children running around in your small store, while doing it!

I'm a thumb sucking wimp! Part Deux

Well I am still a thumb sucking wimp. I am getting better. I still can't sleep while a storm is present, but I can stop from hyperventilating. On Father's Day, we had this storm come through our town. Now let's point out the happenings just 15 minutes before this freakish thing took over. We had blue skies all around! It was a beautiful 83 degrees. It was the perfect grilling day. We spent our savings on buying steaks for Father's Day. I made strawberry pies for dessert. The day was going perfect. THEN!!!!!!!
This thing reared its ugly face. It came so suddenly it almost wasn't real. Our neighbors had a barbecue with 20 people. They all stood in the front yard with us like we were watching an alien space ship landing. Remember that scene in the movie "Independence Day" where the whole world stood on there front lawns watching the space ship silently move over their heads. This was no different. This storm was cackling at me saying, "tornadoes, tornadoes, tornadoes!" Let's point out here that my kids are happily riding their bikes and drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, and we still had our steaks on the grill. And! after paying out our bank account for them, NO tornado was going to rob us of enjoying them!
Can't you just see the funnel cloud trying to form?

So for all who don't believe me when I say that this is a scary place to live, just look at these pictures. You go from blue skies to the storm that I am going to call "The Nothing".
Name that movie! I promise I did not touch up any of these pictures. Disney Pixar did not come over and color nasty looking clouds over our neighborhood. These are the real deal! We did eat our steaks and watch the storm, from the comfort of my inside dining room!

(If you missed Part 1 of this story click here: http://ordinarilyrandomme.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html)