A Hodge-Podge of Thoughts

This week is Spring Break for my daughter. Months ago we had grand plans to take the kids to Disneyland this week, but due to some other circumstances that didn't happen. So, we've tried to do some fun things around town each day. We've gone to the park, an outdoor mall, we saw Rango, and the kids have been able to spend some time with both my mom and grandma. It's really nice to have her home.

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This was the week we got to reintroduce milk to our son's diet to see how he responded. It did not go well at all. The horrible skin condition on his mouth flared up after just one exposure, he broke out in a rash, and his nose started running. We gave him a couple more small doses of food containing cow's milk just to be sure, but by the second day he looked terrible so we stopped. We are giving him a couple days to recover but then we are supposed to reintroduce him to peanuts and then soy to gauge the reactions. I'm pretty nervous.

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When I was in first grade we lived in Boston. I have terrific memories of living there, going to school, and traveling. A man my dad attended Tufts with lived in New Hampshire with his family and so much of our time there was spent with them. We have photo albums that contain picture after picture of our families at each others homes, at get-togethers, etc. I was six when we left there and their oldest daughter was three. Through the power of Facebook I have come back into contact with her. Facebook bugs me for a variety of reasons, but it's not all bad. After all, it is pretty cool to reconnect with a playmate I had 27 years ago.

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Random Conversations that Make Me Laugh

* My daughter has a girl in her gymnastics class named Elizabeth. My daughter informs her teacher today that she has a doll at home named Elizabeth also. The teacher says, "Well, is your doll as pretty as this Elizabeth here?" My daughter replies, "Yes, my doll is much prettier." While I may need to have a discussion about tact with my daughter I am thinking this particular teacher should apply the same "rule" lawyers use and never ask a question that you don't already know the answer to.

* I was cleaning out my daughter's room the other day and moving furniture so we could clean our carpets. I said, "You just have way too many toys." She says in response, "Well, why did you buy me all these toys then?" I thought for a moment and said, "That's a good question." She says, "Well, maybe you just shouldn't have bought me so many." Hard to argue with that logic.

* Out of the blue my daughter asks if having your tubes tied hurts. (For starters I don't have my tubes tied so I have no clue and secondly I have no idea where she would have ever even heard about having your tubes tied). I said, "No, I don't really think so but where did you hear about that?" My daughter says, "I just read about it on my computer. Like on Facebook."

* The other day when driving my daughter says, "Mom, is our new baby going to be black or white?" I said, "Well, she's going to be white just like you and your brother and mommy and daddy." She was silent and I said, "Why do you ask?" She says, "Well, it would be weird to have a black baby since we're not black." Indeed! I think my husband would have quite a few questions if I birthed a baby any color other than pasty white.

* At the grocery store the other day an older woman says, "Oh, your kids are so cute. How old are they?" I replied, "Thanks. They're 4 and 2." She looks at them again and says, "Are they twins?"

Gut Feelings

I tend to be what could be viewed as a bit pessimistic or glass half empty type of person. I prefer to look at it as a realist versus an idealist, but I won't go into the whole issue of semantics. The point is when a situation presents itself or a scenario unfolds I tend to explore, research, analyze the negative outcomes first and solutions to those before i allow myself to consider the possibility that they'll have a positive outcome. The benefit to this is that I am usually pretty well -equipped to handle bad news, trying situations and the like.

With having kids I've masked a lot of that natural pessimism and instead focused on the positives, because let's face it...I don't want to skew my kids' view of the world. Who does? Despite the rah-rah positive attitude I still often get premonitions or gut feelings about situations or circumstances and rarely am I wrong about those. So, to say I rely on my gut heavily is an understatement. I'm still Type A to the core with my flow charts and spread sheets and risk analysis summaries but if I have a gut feeling about something, even if it looks good on paper, I'll usually go with my gut.

That explanation leads me to this relatively new gut feeling. A positive type of anxiousness or anticipation that I can't quite put my finger on. It's not nervousness or excitement, really but more of just a sense that something big (in a good way) lies over the horizon. It's strange because it's not like I am waiting on specific news that I have a good feeling about. It's totally abstract and completely vague, but I can't shake the feeling. It's just this undercurrent that seems to be saying that things will be okay, better than okay, that something is going to happen to make a positive difference. I guess if anything good happens I could attribute that to the feeling, but I think it's bigger than that. That IF something does happen, I'll know. I'll be able to feel a sudden calm of the anxiousness and anticipation.

Do you ever have feelings like this? Do you tend to pay much attention or dismiss them?

When the Effort Doesn't Yield the Desired Results

As a child my parents were militant about brushing and flossing our teeth. We had to Plax and Act before and after every brushing. It was a built in routine.

My husband on the other hand was praised if he could remember to brush his teeth at least every other day. His first roll of floss was purchased after we were married.

I have quite a few cavities. He has none. (We both, thankfully, have straight --his thanks to braces-- and white teeth).

It seems like every time we go to the dentist I leave needing, at minimum, another filling and he leaves cavity free. Don't get me wrong, I am glad for him, but it just seems like if anyone should be getting the cavities it should be him.

I went to the dentist this past September for a teeth cleaning. I left having to set up appointments for three fillings, two crowns, and as of earlier this week one root canal. My husband visited the dentist yesterday and once again, no cavities.

My mother says that because she was so ill and hospitalized during her pregnancy with me that the doctors told her there may be problems with the development of my teeth (enamel not fully formed, "soft" teeth...whatever that means). While I don't doubt she was told that I have no first hand knowledge of its medical accuracy.

I still brush and floss every single day. Once in the morning and once in the evening. While my husband brushes every single morning, he forgets at night and I can't remember the last time I saw him floss. A few years ago???? So, why oh why am I racking up the dental bills?

Medical Expenses and Tax Deductions....All the Fun Stuff

When we set up our Flexible Spending Account this year with our health insurance we put aside an average of the medical expenses we have had for the past few years. In each of the past three years I have either had a child or our son has been hospitalized, thus increasing our expenses. While I knew we wouldn't be having a child this year I did figure on our son being hospitalized for more than a day or two just in case.

Fast forward to December 15, 2009. While our son was kept over night they never actually admitted him which meant we got away with just a co-pay instead of the hospital bills. I've been healthier this year as has the rest of the family. All of this is great news, except now we have more than half of the money we set aside currently unspent.

Since I predicted some of this I started having some dental work done that I've put off for the past year (I need crown on two teeth). Two months ago I had the first crown done. The crown prep was fine, the temporary was incredibly comfortable and I've had no problems with the permanent crown. Then two weeks ago I had the crown prep done for the second crown. It was a little achy at first, which I expected but then the pain wouldn't go away. Add to that the fact I can't chew AT ALL on that entire side of my mouth and now I'm a bit concerned. I kept telling myself to give it a couple more days to see, but it's at the point where it throbs and aches so badly that it's keeping me up at night, the pain has radiated into my jaw and behind my ear and is causing (I think) horrible headaches.

So, I've told myself that I HAVE to call today. I have to have it looked at. (I won't get my permanent crown until 12/28). Yet, here I sit hesitating. I think I dread the possibility of a root canal. The only consolation is I have plenty of money left in our FSA account to pay for it, something that wouldn't have been likely a year ago.

I bet December is a big month for dentists and maybe optometrists too. People having dental work they've put off done or getting contacts and eye glasses just to meet the end of year deadline for tax deductible expenses. While that's usually not the case for us, this year it seems to be, in part due to the overestimation of our medical expenses and the surplus of cash we have to spend on medical treatment/supplies.

How about you? Do you make the rounds with your doctors in December?

All I Want For Christmas Is A..........Pap Smear?

I was watching TV last night and one of the commercials was a public service announcement from CBS where a man sits on a couch encouraging the viewing men to get their loved ones a pap smear for Christmas. Has anyone else seen this? I thought, for sure, it had to be some type of joke. Apparently, it's not. They run one for Christmas and Hanukkah. The Hanukkah one concludes with, "Give her a gift that will light up her Menorah." I'm not Jewish but I'm thinking it's going to take more than that to light my Menorah. The Christmas one ends with "Give her a gift even Santa can't deliver."

I don't know. I love my ob-gyn, so I may be a bit more receptive than most if I were to be given this. However, in all seriousness, if my husband handed me an appointment card for a pap smear I'd be calling the closest marriage counselor.

Am I alone in thinking these commercials are a bit creepy?

Tis the Season

The Christmas season or maybe the stress of the economy seems to be bringing out the worst in people. Today, leaving a store with both my children, we were in the car about to pull through the parking space to exit the parking lot. As I was pulling forward a big work truck came in an attempt to pull into the space I was pulling forward through. I stopped, expecting him to back up since I was already halfway through the space. He didn't but instead kept coming at me, so I put my car into reverse and started backing up. I raised my hands with my palms upward in a gesture like, "What the heck?"

The man jumped out of his car, ran up to mine screaming, "Are you serious? Are you seriously going to get mad at me for trying to park?" I said, "Well, I was halfway through that space but whatever, it's not a big deal, so forget it."

He FREAKED. I don't know if he forgot his meds, escaped from the mental institution or what but he was screaming, "No, I will not forget it. F*&$ you, b&%ch. You can go to hell. F*%#! you" over and over again. I was so stunned, not to mention a little frightened. I pulled away but had to pass where his car was parked. I slowed down to write down his license plate number and the name of the company on the truck. While stopped a couple walked over to me who had witnessed the altercation encouraging me to not let it ruin my day, he was a jerk, they couldn't believe he did that, etc. I thanked them and was waiting to pull out of the parking lot.

The guy came back out of nowhere, smacked my car with his palm and screamed, "Can I help you?" I told him that if he said or did one more thing I was calling the police. He put his hand on my partially rolled down window and started screaming in my face how I was a b&*$# and to go f&*# myself.

I pulled out as quickly and safely as I could and called the police who came shortly thereafter. He had already left. I filed a report, but ultimately there isn't much they can do. There is no damage to my car or to me, thankfully and while he crossed the line it would be hard to prosecute.

My kids were scared and my daughter kept saying, "That is a bad man to call you that bad word. You are not a b*&$%, you are my nice mommy." I was so stunned I couldn't even come up with a response and really with kids in the car I didn't want to say anything to provoke him or show me in a negative light. The larger question is what is wrong with him to freak out over something so minor. While I was aggravated with him, it would have never occurred to me to jump out of my car and chase him down twice and I was the one in the right.

After the adrenaline wore off it scared me a bit to know that there are people out there, that look normal who are so easily triggered over something that happens tons of times a day in parking lots all over the world.

He mentioned something to me about calling the number on his truck, which led me to believe that he was the owner of the company. When I got home I did a little searching and discovered that he is in fact the owner, so there's no real recourse I can take there in terms of complaining about him. Oh well. Ultimately, I am just glad that he wasn't armed because he'd be the guy to open fire over something like this. I am rather bummed that my 4 and 2 year olds learned a new word that they've repeated quite a few times telling my mom, grandma, husband, anyone who will listen, "This very bad man told mommy she was a b*&$%."

So, how about you? Any altercations lately?

Funny Now, Not So Funny Then

My husband was gone late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, both kids were asleep and a little after midnight I headed to bed myself. Ten minutes later I heard some noise coming from the back yard, which I attributed to our dog followed shortly by our home alarm system blaring. It scared the crap out of me, woke up my son and shortly thereafter sent him into hysterics. I yelled downstairs hoping that it was my husband who had come home and accidentally set the alarm off. No one answered, but I could hear things downstairs being rifled through. Honestly, I was scared to death. I called my husband, told him someone was in the house, and he needed to come home right away.

In the meantime, I called the police on my cell and had our alarm company on my home phone, also alerting the police. My daughter slept through the entire thing. I didn't know what to do. We don't have a gun or any other weapon for that matter, my son was in one room crying and my daughter in another sleeping. I kept thinking "What if someone comes up here? I've got kids on opposite ends of the hallway." So, I stood there, crouched in the middle, waiting to jump whoever came upstairs.

A little later my husband came running in the house and yelled. To me, upstairs, I thought he was being attacked or something. I was still on the phone with the police who assured me they were coming. A few minutes later they arrived, searched the house, neighborhood, etc.

Turns out, my husband forgot to lock our sliding glass door that leads out back. Somehow our dumb dog was able to push the door open, triggering the alarm. All the noise I heard downstairs? The dog knocking over and going through the kitchen trash. My husband yelling? Coming home and discovering said dog as the root cause for all this chaos.

The police man was very nice and very kind to our son who was so scared he was trembling. He kept saying over and over again, "Nice police man come to my house" and "Big gun." Obviously, I am thankful it was nothing sinister, but I was also incredibly embarrassed that they rush out here to find our dog had broken in.

How about you? Any "not so funny then, but funny now" moments? Or embarrassing moments involving the police?

A Parenting Dilema

There are things that my son does on an almost daily basis that are dangerous and heart stopping for a mother to watch. Some of these things are definitely things I never want to see him do again (climbing to the top of a bookshelf), while others I admit I find myself torn between wanting to keep him safe and wanting to celebrate the accomplishment. The list is much too long to go into, but the most recent stunt involves our couch and a trampoline.

He stands on the arm of the couch (no-no number 1) and jumps from the couch onto a trampoline a good two to three feet away. As he does this I envision him propelling forward, falling off the trampoline and landing on the tile either cracking open his head or knocking out his teeth. Instead he lands and in one fluid motion begins to jump....straight up and down. He never propels forward, never seems to lose his balance. It's effortless. And it scares me to death. I can't encourage it; he shouldn't be doing it, yet the other part of me is so incredibly impressed at his sense of balance, agility, coordination, etc. I watched him do it five times before I made him stop because I wanted to make sure it wasn't a fluke. Yet, with each attempt the ease of his land the transition to jumping became more and more flawless.

Impressive feat. Nonetheless, he was told to never do that again. However, part of me wants him to show my husband when he gets home. Would it be wrong to just turn away and act like I didn't see him perfecting his stunt?

Joy

When my husband and I bought our current house we thought more about having enough room inside for a family than we did about having enough room outside. As a result we have a 4 bedroom, 2100 square foot home with a 600 square foot backyard. It's small. This never bothered us when we were childless, but since having kids it annoys us to death.

Pre-kids my husband built a fire pit with three concrete benches. We'd have friends over, sit around the fire, and chat. It was nice. Then life happened, we got busy, and we never had a fire anymore. Literally, half of our backyard was filled with the fire pit and its surrounding area.

A few months ago, I finally convinced my husband to tear down his labor of love. It was painful for him. He loved the fire pit, even though he rarely used it. I convinced him that our kids needed more space. After quite a bit of work involving the destruction and removal of debris we had an empty portion of yard that we decided to fill with grass.

The past two days, the kids and I have spent hours outside, just playing, laying, laughing, running in the grass. The kids have so much more room, they love being outside and honestly it is a nice change in our routine. All the work was totally worth it. Until we are able to move to a house with a bigger yard, this will have to do and right now, I'm okay with it.

A Heaping Pile

A few months ago my husband and I did some major overhaul to our backyard. We cleared an area to lay down grass and figured it would be cheaper to plant by seed versus purchasing the roll out grass. So, we prepped the ground, followed the instructions exactly as given, and then waited. Grass only grew in a random five foot by five foot patch. The rest of the 300 square feet was left completely bare. So, we reseeded and waited again. The grass in that same area continued to grow, but nowhere else.

Here we are three months later and we have no grass. This has created a bit of a problem as we have promised that our children will have grass.

Over Labor Day my husband re-prepped the dirt, leveling everything off again. Today I spent $75 purchasing bags of soil, sand and shit (or more appropriately termed manure). My husband is picking up rolls of grass at 5 am tomorrow morning and hopefully by tomorrow evening we will have grass.

A couple things about this chap my hide. Number 1: We are now out way more money than we had anticipated. Had we just done the roll out from the start we could have saved $200 or so. I guess that is a lesson learned. Number 2: My husband has a crazy schedule, like always, but this week is especially brutal. He has no time to put the grass in or do any of the prep work. That leaves me. Tomorrow after I take the kids to the dentist and my daughter to dance class I will spend the rest of the afternoon and probably evening laying down sod. I am not looking forward to this in the least. I will, however, be very glad when it is done and we have grass.

On that note, does anyone know how long people and pets should stay off the grass?

Giddyup

I chewed through my leash this evening and ran a couple of errands by myself while my husband was putting the kids to bed. On the way home I thought I'd stop and get my husband and I something to eat. There is this local Mexican place called Nico's that has a bit of a cult following. It's "fast" Mexican food, but still authentic. As their popularity has grown they have opened more locations throughout town. It's open crazy hours and attracts a wide-range of clientele from prominent local business men and women to drunk college students hungry after clubbing all night.

Tonight as I pulled into the parking lot I saw in the distance what I thought were horses. As I got closer I realized they were totally horses. Parked. In the handicap parking. Tied to the handicap sign.

I couldn't help myself. I was hysterical. I don't know why I found this so funny. Something about riding a horse to a restaurant. Parking in an actual parking space. The handicap space no less. I called my husband and then my mom and we were all dying. I had to compose myself before I could get out of the car so the owners wouldn't hear my mockery. I walked up and struck up a conversation. Turns out they ride their horse to Walgreen too. Seriously?

Only in Tucson.....

Why I Bribed My Daughter and How My Son Became The Slayer of Snakes

My four year old daughter gave up naps shortly after she turned one. It has been a long three years. Today, after putting my son down for a nap, I tried to convince my daughter who look exhausted to lay down and take a nap with me. She wanted to play. As I fought sleep I finally resorted to bribing her. I am not proud of this, but I told her that if she would just go to sleep then I'd take her to the store and get her a toy.

She went to sleep.

The joke was on me, though, as by the time my daughter fell asleep I only got to nap for fifteen minutes before my son woke up wanting to play.

Two hours later my daughter woke up. She came down the stairs and the first words out of her mouth were, "Can we go get a toy now?"

I'm a woman of my word so I took them to the store. My son picked out a sword, which against my better judgment I bought him. He uses his baseball bat, tennis racket, sticks and anything else he can find as a weapon to hit his sister with, so a sword was probably not the best idea. Before buying it I told him that he could not ever hit his sister with it and if he did I would take it away.

He said, "No, I'll smote snakes." And that he did. He spent the rest of the afternoon hunting and smoting imaginary snakes throughout our house.

Can You Hear Me Now?

My daughter has been in her new dance class for 3 weeks now and each week we (all the other parents and grandparents) sit in the lobby, which is fairly small, and wait for the class to end. One particular girl is brought to class by her grandmother each week. This grandmother, for whatever reason, feels that the 45 minutes she waits is the perfect time for her to make a phone call to her gossip buddy and talk the entire time about things none of the rest of us care to hear.

For example, in the past three weeks I have learned the following:

- she has a high school aged grandson who is very troubled and who she feels no one understands but her
- Whether I am watching my daughter dance or not, I, along with every other person in the lobby and the person she is on the phone with, gets a play by play of what is going on during the dance class. "Oh, they are jumping now. Oh, wait now they are changing into their tap shoes. Oh, oh wait now they are all standing in a circle."
- I have learned the eating habits of all her grandchildren, how many snacks they receive during the day, how their food is prepared, and the like
-Apparently, one grandchild will only eat Annie's organic mac and cheese but she "fancies it up" with broccoli. Another only eats grapes, pretzels, and Doritos.
- Her daughter in law also seems to be the brunt of much criticism. She begins many sentences with "And I said..." and then proceeds to loudly inform the person on the other end of the phone what she told her daughter in law and it is usually something critical.
- And today I learned that she thinks either her daughter in law or one of her grand daughters is way too chubby. I couldn't tell which one she was talking about. Apparently, she is going to send a video to her friend, which she has already posted on YouTube, that shows how chubby this person is because all she eats is Italian bread sticks. If you happen to see this video, she is the one on the far right....the chubby one.

Bottom line is that I'm sick of sitting there and listening to her talk. She talks way too loudly and frankly it is too much information. I can envision myself in the near future just losing it and screaming at her to take her conversation outside. I'm privately hoping one of the other moms does it first. I don't know why certain people feel it totally appropriate to have LONG and LOUD conversations in a public setting.

Am I the only one that feels this way?

The Look of Youth

We were driving in the car today and I was looking in the visor mirror. I scrunched up my face and noticed a few "wrinkles" around my eyes when I did that.

Me: Look at these wrinkles (then I turned to my husband and scrunched up my face).
Hubby: Those aren't wrinkles, but anyone making that face is bound to have some lines.
Me: They are wrinkles.
Hubby: Seriously, when do you ever make that face?
Me: I don't know, but if and when I do people are going to notice that I have wrinkles.
Hubby: Yeah, okay.
Me: It's sad because I am losing my youthful, vibrant, full of life look and it's being slowly replaced by the look of someone old, haggard, and wrinkled.
Hubby: Says the woman who was just carded at the grocery store while buying alcohol.
Me: I'm just sayin'. And, look here at my temple. Is that gray?
Hubby: That is not gray. That's blonde.
Me: Are you sure?
Hubby: You have dirty blonde hair. That's the color of your hair. It's not gray.
Me: If it ever goes gray I am dying my hair.
Hubby: No one is even gray in your family. I don't think you have to worry.
Me: My grandma is.
Hubby: She's 81.
Me: Well, that's not too far away
Hubby: 50 years isn't far away? Okay, I'm not having this conversation anymore. You are not gray, you do not have wrinkles, and you don't look haggard. You look 12.

Weekend Getaway

The fish that the kids liked to go and watch. My son in the pool.

My daughter (in pink) in the pool with some random folks in the background.

My husband and son conked out.

Saturday morning I had spent ten minutes outside doing some light gardening and when I came back inside I was just dripping wet. I wanted nothing more than to just jump in a pool. So, spur of the moment I tried to Priceline a room at one of the handful of resorts here in town. No surprise that our low price was accepted....Tucson isn't really a desirable place to be during the summer months....so we quickly packed our swimsuits, sunscreen, hats, and some clothes and headed to the Hilton.

We spent the next 24 hours either in the pool or sleeping. It was wonderful. The kids had a great time and there was just enough breeze that at times we were even chilly in the pool. My daughter would seriously live in a hotel if we could afford it. She loves everything about "hotel life": room service, comfy beds, constant swimming, water slides, and just exploring outside. My son, while he loved the swimming, asked constantly to go home. He even woke up most of the night crying because he wanted to go home. If I could have slept with him in the pool all would have been okay, but he is definitely a home body.

Anyway, we are back home. Back to reality and sweating again. What was your weekend like? Did you do anything fun or exciting?

My Lap is Free, Please Take a Seat

My husband and I actually got to go on a date today thanks to my mom. I think we average two a year, sadly. Anyway, we went to see The Hangover and then out for sushi and beer. When we walked into the theatre it was completely empty. We were the only ones in the entire place. We picked our seat and settled in. A few minutes later an older couple walked in.

Before they even headed our way I knew exactly what was going to happen. With all the empty seats in the theatre they came and sat right next to us, leaving only one seat between the wife and my husband. Every other darn seat in the entire theatre was empty and remained empty the entire movie. Yet they had to sit THAT close. What is with people?

I wish I could say this was the first time it has happened to us, but I'd be lying. It happens frequently. I don't understand it. When I walk into a relatively empty theatre I make it a point to sit as far away from the other patrons as possible.

So, there we sat. The four of us all nestled close together listening to the lady munch her popcorn and slurp her soda.

On the Prowl

My son has an obsession, like most typical boys, with things like dinosaurs, cars, trains, trucks, and motorcycles. To say he likes these things is an understatement. He goes nuts over them, insisting that I follow them. The most recent interest is with trash trucks and motorcycles. Anytime we see one, which is surprisingly quite a bit, he insists I follow until we can get close enough for him to get a good look. I'm becoming very friendly with our neighborhood garbage man. I would not be surprised if he takes out a restraining order.

Recently, we have had the good fortune of ending up at many stop lights right next to motorcycles. The odds of this happening with such frequency would seemingly be against us. Each time I find myself rolling down my son's back window so he can get a closer look. I then feel compelled to roll down either my window or the passenger window and yell at the top of my lungs so I can be heard over the engine, "My son likes your bike" at which point each biker revs his engine, much to my son's delight.

I think I might be getting a reputation around town though as the lady who uses her kids to try to pick up bikers. "Suuuuuure, your son likes my bike lady."

Rejoice

Within this past year I came back into contact with a friend of mine from college via Facebook. Over the course of the past few months he and his wife lost their child in the 9th month of the pregnancy. The uterus burst and the baby's umbilical cord was sucked out, pinching off oxygen to their baby boy. The devastation and pain suffered is unimaginable to me and still brings me great sadness to simply contemplate their loss. My friend blogged very openly about their experience and to say I was amazed by his perspective is an understatement.

Long story short, they began to toss around the idea of adoption. Things happened very quickly and within this past week they met a birth mother, got her approval, and found out she was schedule for a c-section today. During that time they needed to raise 27k for the adoption fees, legal fees, hospital fees, and travel fees. Amazingly in five days over 27k was donated to them from friends, family, members of their church, and people they didn't even know. This was nothing short of incredible.

Today they became parents for the second time. Only this time they will get to rejoice in the birth and look forward to taking this precious gift home with them to love, nurture, and raise. I can't imagine the range of emotions they must be experiencing from joy to sadness to redemption and any and all in between. Today was a good day. Better than good actually. An amazing day. I'm sure the birth of their second son will never take away the pain associated with the loss of their first, but hopefully he will be a beacon of joy and a source of comfort for them. He will be to them what our children our to us: the best of us.

One More Spill and It's To the Moon

What's the saying? No use crying over spilled milk? I have to tell you that if my son spills one more thing in the course of a 24 hour period to add to the 134 other times during that same time period in which he spilled I am going TO LOSE MY EVER LOVING MIND!

I normally have the patience of a saint when it comes to picking up and cleaning up after my kids. If they spill I really don't care. It happens. They are young. In this house it happens a lot. But my son, for the love of sweet baby Jesus, simply does not pay attention. If he weren't merely two I'd be convinced he was ADD. Being that he is two I will chalk it up to his age and gender. In a matter of minutes today he dropped his glass of juice. Literally as I was cleaning that up he knocked his bowl of cereal off the table which sent milk and cheerios flying everywhere. As I was cleaning that up, he managed to kick over my cup of water which I had set down on the floor by the couch when I got up to clean his first mess. This doesn't even count the handful of things he dropped, dumped, threw during the rest of the day. And it's not like today was the exception. It was pretty much the rule. This is what goes on every single gosh darn day. What is it? I really can hardly take it anymore. I spent my entire day mopping. I'm tempted to freeze dry everything that kid eats and drinks in order to simply save my sanity. Is that possible?

My husband thought there was something wrong with the poor kid. (He works a lot and isn't usually home to witness the catastrophe that is my life). He was ready to lose it after the series of three spills. I'm thinking, "Babe you have been witness to three spills. Multiply that by a million and there's a snapshot of my week."

So, seriously. Freeze dried. Gotta be possible, astronauts use them.