Almost Somewhat Positive

Update on little Emma Rose

2008-05-07T11:06:00.007-05:00

Well, we had a follow up appointment for Emma today, our little peanut. Just so you know how much of a peanut... she's3 feet tall and 27 pounds fully clothed. ;)

Anyway, our new pediatrician said that she did hear a slight systolic heart murmur, classified as a stage 1. She said if I hadn't mentioned that Emma was diagnosed with a heart murmur (at birth, which they recanted later at a peds appointment because they couldn't find it- then last year when she had pneumonia they heard it again, only to not be able to find it during a follow up after antibiotics), she might not have caught it.

So... Emma has an appointment to see a pediatric cardiologist out of town on May 28th. They will do an EKG there and will look at her chest xray from her ER visit... and based on those the doctor will decide whether or not she needs to have an echocardiogram.

The doc did say that overall, she isn't too worried about it, and that I shouldn't lose sleep over it and that it's good to just have it checked out and documented now because later in life other doctors will notice it and will want all of these tests done anyway (if we don't look into it).

I want it looked at anyway, whether or not it is considered minor. This is my baby we are talking about here... nothing is minor to me LOL!

I let the doc know about Emma having gray/ grayish-blue lips at times, and dusky nail beds... and that it usually resolves itself within a few minutes, and she listened intently. She asked if her fingers and toes were cold during these episodes and said it was common for children with heart murmurs to experience this. I was really glad that she took me seriously because when I mentioned this during her bout with pneumonia last year they blew me off because she was fine by the time we got her to the ER.

Emma did well, she followed directions during the exam and didn't shed a single tear. She did however scowl at the doctor while the doc listened several minutes to her heart, moving the stethoscope every 5 seconds or so. Emma was awarded with a sucker, which was blue of all things... but at least her lips are tinted blue for a good reason for once. ;)

I will let you guys know what the pediatric cardiologist says after the 28th, thanks in advance for your thoughts and prayers. We really appreciate it!

Here are a few pics of miss thang after her appointment, sporting a pony tail, my sunglasses and blue (sucker tinted) lips. :D

PS- I forgot to add that as of 2 days ago, Emma has told us that she isn't afraid of bugs anymore. Her kitty cat- the one she has a death grip on in the photos above- IS afraid of bugs, but she isn't. ;)

Ahhhhh, finally

2008-05-02T11:20:00.007-05:00

What's new pussy cat? I know... I really need to get my buns over to your blog, like yesterday. ;)

I haven't been able to squeeze in blogging except a random post here and there to let you guys know that I haven't mysteriously lost my gravitational pull, therefore floating off the face of the earth in into the heavens. There has been no spontaneous combustion, freak accidents (except for Emma spraining her knee this last Tuesday). Nope, just me, tired and whiny me, still unable to manage my time enough to squeeze in some good quality blogging.

What, you say? Emma? Knee? seeing a doctor for a second week in a row? Why yes! My little one has suddenly grown accustomed to waiting rooms and has developed a need for a physicians intervention.

Forsooth and whatnot. ;)

I cannot explain it except that she was happily jumping one minute, then screaming in agony the next. I had her rest for an hour, and she woke a dozing me with crying. I found her crumpled on the floor next to the couch, just a few feet from me. So then I decided to give her some medicine and see if she could walk, she limped a little. Then I had her try to climb the stairs (for nap time) and the moment she used her right leg to climb the first step, she cried in agony.

I called the hubs and contemplated taking her to the ER again, but after John came home he convinced me that she probably didn't need to see the ER doc, and possible could wait a day to see if she really needed to see a doc at all. Over protective me? I convinced him that neurotic me wouldn't rest until she was seen and I knew that it was nothing more than a sprain (as evidenced by her slightly swollen knee).

I had to work, but found out 5 hours later *rolls eyes*, after I got home, that she had a sprain and took some children's motrin before bed.

On another note, and more on Emma, thank you for all of your comments and prayers concerning the chest pains and the buggie issues. She has an appointment next week to see a pediatrician ( we normally see a family doc), and I will update you guys with more info as we have it.

On the buggie front, we went outside this week so that the girls could try out the new side walk paint. Em immediately began to scream because of the ants on the side walk. SO... I sprayed her with invisible spray (insect repellent), gave her her buggie sunglasses, then armed her with bug "happy spray" (20 parts water to 1 part febreeze, to make the bugs be nice, not to kill them) in her own special squirt bottle.

One commenter said that they thought that "indulging her fears" wasn't exactly the way to go (thanks for the comment Sue), but I would just like to say that I have tried the "get over it" approach and it actually made her more afraid. I think she trusted me a little less, and that bothered me. The problem with parenting (and childhood) is that one approach does not work for every child. My girls are very high strung and stubborn. My oldest is afraid of water but because we got her a pool that she could comfortably stand up in (she was almost 4 foot and the pool was 30 inches deep), she had a blast after getting used to the pool for only a 1/2 hour. the year before year I accidentally dropped her when my husband was tossing her to me in a deeper pool and she didn't trust me after that, and refused to let me hold her while in the pool. Though the school of hard knocks approach might work for some children, I have learned that suggesting that they just get over it makes them mistrust me and even fear me. I really dislike the idea of them not trusting me since I've had an inherent (but well deserved) fear and mistrust of my abusive mother my whole life.

What I did do though was try several things until I found something that made her more comfortable. I brought her her dad's comfy butterfly chair outside for her to sit in, and brought out her Magnadoodle to keep her occupied and distracted, all the while not giving in to her pleas to go inside. I did give in to her demands to have her feet up off of the ground because she didn't calm down after 1/2 hour and was shaking terribly, and considering her recent bout with chest pain I felt this was necessary... but also I think compromise is in order her for her to feel like she is being heard, has options and is at least a little in control. Baby steps right? She IS only 3 years old. Spraying her "happy bug spray" seemed to help and I think she felt in control some what. Of course once she got going there was no stopping her until I convinced her that she had adequately drenched a 2 foot radius from her chair.

As for the 'ahhhhh, finally" part, I found a yoga DVD that I just love. This is not an official review, I just really love it!

Yoga For Beginners truly is a DVD for beginners. What I love about Barbara's approach to yoga is that she gives you tips on breathing, body movement and placement. She also says pointers like ,"If you feel a strain in Y or Z, then your X is too far off center". She also gives reminders to watch for neck or face strain, etc. There is an intermediate section also, but I'm not there yet so I can't tell about that yet, but I have noticed increased flexibility just from doing her DVD every other day. I also noticed that I am less sore after work (***TMI ALERT*** I usually have horrible groin/pelvic floor pain from all the walking on those hard floors, and my back is pretty stiff), that my upper body strength has increased, and ***TMI ALERT*** that my boobs have perked up a bit.

So, to sum up... I can now officially call it Yog-ahhhhhh instead of Yog-ouch. ;) If you are interested in giving yoga a try, but don't like the fact that most exercise DVD's don't take the time to explain proper body mechanics for each exercise, or you think that yoga is too hard based on what you have seen on TV I highly recommend this DVD to get you going.

What do you do when...

2008-04-25T10:12:00.004-05:00

Your child develops an irrational and debilitating fear of something? Recently Emma has developed a fear of BUGS of any kind... even the tiniest bugs like gnats and ants. One day about 1 1/2 weeks ago she just freaked out while in the car and screamed like a victim in a horror movie. John almost wrecked the car it scared him so badly.

Four days ago she refused to do one of her favorite activities, side walk chalk, and shook violently at the sight of an ant. Later, she refused to move from a spot in the middle of the back yard because I made the mistake of telling her that she didn't need to be afraid, bugs were every where in the back yard (above ground and below) and the didn't and wouldn't hurt her. Later (after about 2 hours of her standing in one spot screaming) we convinced her to get in the sand box, into the nice NEW , clean sand. I was a few feet away when she shrieked and sobbed because of one ant in the sand box.

I don't know what happened, the only thing I can think of is that she had a bad dream or something but I can't seem to get a clear answer about it. I know I need/ we need to comfort her but I don't want to over do it (as in John and I have told her we will give her hugs but we refuse to carry her around in the back yard or hold her off the ground)... and I know that if I ignore her behavior it could foster feelings of abandonment and make things worse.

I have been wracking my brain to come up with things to make her feel like she is in control, and to show her that bugs are good and that it's OK to not like them but she doesn't have to be afraid of them.

Soooo, this is what I have come up with, I hope it works! Emma got some toy lizards for her birthday from Anna from Target, and they had some matching buggies on sale. My idea is to have her get used to bugs by playing with these, they basically are from David Kirk's Miss Spider/Sunny Patch.

Also, we bought her a magic pair of sunglasses in the right side of the picture below that have butterflies on them, and the lenses flip out to the sides. They are magic because bugs will see that she is friendly since the glasses have butterflies, and the bugs will decide to be very nice to Em and not hurt her. If they do fly on her, they are just there to give her a buggy kiss to say thank you for showing that she is ok with bugs.

If THAT doesn't work, we have also bought her a spray bottle that I will fill with "bug spray" (thanks for the idea Ash!) that will have water with a dash of febreeze for scent. She can spray the bugs if she gets scared while we are out, not to "kill" them but to remind them to be nice. ;)

I hope something works because I hate to see my baby shaking in terror because of an ant :(

Did you go through this ( irrational fears) with your child? How did you get them through this phase? Any help would be appreciated!

*photos are borrowed from Bug Safari*

Bruce Lee (and Chuck Norris) would be so proud

2008-04-24T15:36:00.002-05:00

We have been trying to get Anna interested in activities, hopefully a sport of some kind. We want our kids to NOT be couch potatoes like us, and we are trying to be good examples by increasing physical activity...

but it's not working. :P

Me a few days ago: Hey Anna, what about karate? You like to do high kicks and karate chops...

Anna (in a less than enthusiastic tone): Mmmmm... OK... But only if you bribe me.

*SIGH*

On a more serious note

2008-04-22T16:15:00.009-05:00

Emma complained of chest pain today. I called and made an appointment with our doctor, and was told we had to bring her in 2 hours later because" it's statistically unlikely that she is having a heart attack". Harumphhhhh.

I wondered to myself if I remembered how to do child CPR... "follow the rib cage uo , place 2 fingers on the tip of the sternum, then place the heel of one hand after those fingers...", and pictured myself trying to keep it together while doing compressions with one hand and talking to 911 with the other.

then I asked her if she wanted some medicine for her chest while we waited and she said, "No, I want to see the doctor NOW."

Um, dudes? When your 3 year old asks to see a doctor? Scary stuff. I called John and told him to forget the doctor, to pick us up to bring us to the ER. Being the responsible adult that I am I called the doctor's office back and explained that since Emma is now asking to see the doc, I wanted to cancel the appointment, and that we were going to the ER. What does this lady say?

"Ummm, well you can just bring her here, instead of bringing her to the ER..."

Me- "Yes, well, 3 year olds don't normally ASK to see the doctor so I feel more comfortable bringing-"

"But, you could just bring her here, and we could see if the doctor could see her right away..."

Me biting my tongue, cus really receptionist lady? You're going to try to talk me into bringing my kid to a clinic equipped with an EKG versus a fully equipped hospital.... because you want my freaking money? WOW. *clearing my throat angrily*- "Basically I am calling you to TELL YOU that I wont be bringing Emma there, we are going to the ER."

"Well, we can run tests... Oh I guess all we can do is an EKG."

"Exactly."

"OH. OK, good luck then."

I said thank you and hung up before I could utter the words, "Good luck with me not coming down there to kick your @ss."

Then I repented and prayed for my child who was slumped back on the couch, my sweet little 3 year old, whom this idiot wanted so badly to make money off of. Sheesh.

Statistics, schmatitistics. Lets say 100 out of 20,000 kids ever experience cardiac problems at Emma's age... For the 100 kids, and the parents of those 100 kids, statistics don't mean a mother blogging thing. Yes, I get it. The chances are rare, but I'm not going to sit idly by while Emma actually goes from saying "Mommy, I don't feel good, my chest hurts" while pointing to her sternum area to "I want to see the doctor NOW." (in lieu of the tasty purple medicine that she begs for for no reason at all).

And frankly, I have been a statistic all my life for one reason or another -my childhood, tubal pregnancy, endometriosis, infertility,emergency c-section with Anna, miscarriage, having a large mass on my thyroid, various allergic reactions... I could go on but you get my point. Sheesh, no wonder I am such a pessimist. I have seen the numbers and the numbers usually include me, so I'm going to do what I need to do to make sure my kids are safe. End of story.

OK, rant over, back to the important stuff like Emma. ;)

My concern is that John has a heart murmur, and at birth we were told Em had one too. Later before we left the hospital after she was born the doc said he could no longer hear it. A year ago when Emma had pneumonia, our doc said he could hear one again, but couldn't hear it with a follow up appointment. He said that there are some kids who will develop a murmur during illness but it will go away...

Also, when Emma was sick last year with pneumonia , we rushed her to the ER because her lips were bluish. Since then, she has had a few episodes where I will notice that her lips are slightly purple, but check her again in a few minutes and she is fine. Of course this never happens while actually at the doctors (why is it that kids are always fine when they get there?), but when the ER doc asked today if that had ever happened I said yes. Apparently he is a little concerned too that Emma is so small that people often mistake her for a 2 year old.

But honestly, today scared me. John has a cousin who's son needed heart surgery at the age of 8, after discovering he had a problem when he was 6 or 7.

Anyway, an xray showed nothing and I was surprised that they didn't do an ekg... but the ER doc wants to see an actual pediatrician instead of a family practice doc to have Emma looked at more closely.

She did better than I expected and was even able to identify her pain level by looking at a facial expression chart, as seen here.
She pointed to #4. When told to hold her breath for the chest xray, she forgot to stay still and covered her mouth with her hand... which all the xray techs thought was adorable. She followed directions very well otherwise and was ooooh'd and ahhhh'd over for being so cute, petite and for her curly hair... basically she was treated like a little princess.

The extra bonus for her was that her nana (the infamous MIL) works at the hospital so she came over to the ER to see her Peanut.

My little princess didn't cry once.

I did, but not my girl. ;)

Hopefully her tests will come out normal (when we get in to see the pediatrician), and her chest pain will have been nothing more than indigestion for the bagel and cream cheese she had for breakfast... but prayers would be appreciated.

I know all I seem to be doing is asking for prayers, but surely you parents and grandparents understand.

Thank you so much, from Emma, John and me. I really appreciate it.

That's life - OR- I need a vacation

2008-04-09T09:39:00.012-05:00

Sooooo..... Long time no see huh? I bet the 4 people that still read my blog might be wondering what I have been up to lately, and to those 4 lovely people (who I am very very grateful for!!!) I would like to say this: My life is complete chaos right now.

Which I suppose for some people is normal, but for me that hasn't been true for a very long time. Since I was a kid actually, but compared to that my life is a song.

Emma's birthday was on the 30th, and we had a very small party for her. If you remember, I was able to talk the little booger into having a princess party:

I feel bad because I didn't actually make her cake, but I had to work the 2 days before her birthday.... my MIL bought the cake and I decorated it at least :) She didn't have a nap that day since her party fell on her nap time, but later she crashed out on the couch while sitting with Anna and me. I thought back and realized that 3 years to the day, she was sleeping just like that I am sure.

NOW...

Of course the MISU didn't bother to tell me he was taking a pic of me too, so I was doing the "let me smoosh myself way back so I'm not in the pic, while unfortunately making my double chin look ginourmous" thing. *SNORT*

And then :D

Since her birthday, I have been working A LOT. I only wanted to work 3 days a week but I have been working a lot more, and I just worked 5 days in a row at The T. Just when I started to get used to working in retail, and getting used to the rhythms of the sales floor, I go and do something stupid like asking to be cross trained in the "Food Avenue"... which came at a very bad time as 2 regular kitchen employees have quit to move to another state. So, I trained last weekend and have a total of 4 food area shifts already this week. When I asked to be trained there, several supervisors (including the HR) pounced on me, saying, "So you wanna work at Food Ave, huh? Do ya? Do ya? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

I should have known right then- as I stood there gagging at the stench of sheer desperation coming down the hall at me- to run in the other direction pleading temporary insanity.

Really.

I thought I'd train so that I could get an extra shift here and there... not to replace a Food Ave employee. Clearly I need to talk to HR about this if they continue to schedule me more than once a week, though they told me I had a lot of shifts because someone was on vacation. We shall see.

Actually, I have 2 more food shifts this week, then one next week... so I called yesterday for them to make a notation to NOT schedule any more food shifts for me until I figure out whether or not I like it.

Anyway, other than that I have contemplated giving up blogging. I have little time to write, and no time to read my favorite blogs, AND given that I am so miserably behind in both seems overwhelming to me... which kills any desire to blog at all.

I am sure that you, dear reader, have been here at this very cross road. My readership is way down because I haven't been posting, and as much as I hate to admit it, readership relies almost completely on "popularity" and reader reciprocation- meaning that there seems to be a certain algebraic equation to popularity, and I am horrible at math now. Also, if you don't have the said algebraic components and digits, then fail to reciprocate comments... yer done.

I just don't have the energy to prostitute myself for comments/readership right now. What I mean by THAT is I have begged, pleaded and apologized in the past for not reading/reciprocating, and I have tried to "fix" things by spending hours reading other blogs to play catch up or to try to save face. This has no bearing on those blogs I read, and they (the blog owners) are not to blame, and they are not to blame for the guilt that I used to feel.

This is just how I feel about it all.

But honestly? That's life. Often times we find ourselves in situations where we have to choose and sacrifice, and sometimes we have to scrape away the extraneous and unproductive parts of our lives to really discover what we are made of. I don't feel guilty, just sad. I don't want to lose touch with friends that I have made blogging, but again that's life. Just like in real life, sometimes you lose friends despite your best efforts. Sometimes people outgrow relationships.

For me, right now at this moment, I am not sure where blogging fits into my life. So much so that I forgot my 2 year bloggiversary on February 6th. And on a side note, since starting [to] work [my @ss off], I have lost more weight. I'm down 20 lbs, y'all!

This part of my post is in no way meant to offend, and I hope it doesn't. Like I said, this is about me. At the end of the day, I have to decide what is more important; blogging or spending what little time I have with my kids on the days I work now, since I go to work about 45 minutes after Anna gets home from school and come home after their bedtimes. But also it has a lot to do with me not wanting to put those pressures on myself anymore, life is too short.

I do know this though... there are a few of you peeps who have stuck with me through thick and thin, crazy outburst and tyrannical/maniacal rants. Thank you so much for your love and support! Don't worry, I will make time for you, I promise (sorry I haven't emailed you back Factor 10 Jen, Ash and Michelle). It may not happen for a while until I have a decent stretch of days off, but know I am thinking about you.

Finally, trying to start a sewing business then getting a job was a really bad idea. I have no energy left for my basic housework let alone sewing. I have nothing so far for my web site: there is no design yet, and I have little product to show for the last 4 months. I'm not sure if I should even venture or risk it since I thought that maybe I could get business by posting pictures of my wares here on my blog, but as you can see I don't even have time for regular posts.

I hope to update here and there, but if I have no activity... well I guess ASP will have to close up shop.

Like I said, my life is chaos right now...We'll see how it goes.

I know you understand.

If I were a superstitious woman...

2008-03-28T07:20:00.007-05:00

I would take this as a really bad sign, and we would just go ahead and buy a gun and be done with it.

I'm talking about the fact that Anna seems to already have a fan club. I mean really, though I have never thought myself to be beautiful, as a teen I wasn't too hard on the eye- but now that I'm 38 I often wonder just how these 2 beautiful girls of mine came to be. John says the same thing.

"How did we (meaning 2 ugly old farts like us) ever make such beautiful girls."

Of course for just a moment, I reacted like you would expect.

"Gee, thanks, honey."

I'm sure I rolled my eyes too, but I laughed because I knew he was right. We ain't spring chickens, ya know. We got started late in life. Sure we , married young and thank God- I tell him- at least we got to enjoy each other while we were still semi-hot. ;)

Roww-rowwwww, Hunka hunka!

Awww, poor guy! Married for a half hour and already looking exhausted.
If he only knew! Oh well, hindsight, right?
BTW, we'll be married 19 years this coming June 3rd.
SCARY! Man, am I rockin' the 80's hair or what?

Anywho...... digression, digression, a tangent, digression... Oh, right, Anna. I asked Anna a few days ago if she still had an admirer at school. Anna told us that the little testosterone filled trouble maker at school still swoons at the sight of her, and usually says a very quick "I love you" as he passes by her desk.

I snorted.

Then she said very casually that most of the boys in her class are "crushin' on her". One boy likes to ask her, "Hey, hot baby... how's it goin'?"

I guffawed.

Good lord folks, who is teaching these kids one liners? Joey Tribbiani? *How you doin'?*

Another boy likes to tell her "You look sexy".

I had a stroke.

Ummmmmmmm, 'scuse me? *sigh* I think I may have mentioned this once ot twice before.

We are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo in trouble.

More news on my cousin

2008-03-26T14:46:00.004-05:00

Hey y'all... I JUST got this email from my aunt a few minutes ago... I can't say it any better than she did so here is her email:

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to say thank you to all of you who prayed for my daughter and my family. She has had a hard 3 months of testing and waiting for results.

The long and short of it is that the doctor who took the tissue sample and said it was cancer a few weeks ago, said on Monday after looking at the X-rays and second set of blood test results she could no longer find the tumor. The doctor had Rachel go right then for an MRI.

When the doctor read the MRI she told Rachel that she must have a very powerful God because the cancer is no longer there. I believe it is a miracle, she has had a network of people praying for her from the start.

Her doctor did say that she has infection where the tumor was and that her spleen is very enlarged. So she is on a heavy dose of antibiotics for 7 days, she has to rest and the doctor want's to see her every 2 weeks for the next 3 months to make sure she is still cancer free.

So from the bottom of my heart thank you for your prayers and yes we do have an Awesome God and a wonderful Savior who does answer the prayers of His children.

Yvonne

I was so floored when I read this email, I let out a scream! Tears immediately ensued, of course. ;)

Again, I cannot express... there are no words to adequately express how thankful I am for each and every one of you who took the time to pray for Rachel and her family.

When I wrote the first post about Rachel, I included some back ground on why I hadn't mentioned God in a while on my blog- but how I was resolved to resolve my issues with God because despite my past (and my feelings that He abandoned my brothers and I when we were children, my doubts and fears) because there was a larger, more important issue at hand. I realized My cousin was ill and she needed prayer, and that over shadowed any of my insecurities and doubt. And so, not wanting to make the post "about me", I edited my post feeling that in reality no explanation was needed. I didn't really need to give a reason why I had turned away from God because it wasn't important.

I felt that I didn't need to justify or explain away why suddenly I had become religious because those that felt compelled to pray would pray, and those that were offended would simply not read my blog anymore. Again, so unimportant in the grand scheme of things, especially when a loved one's life hangs in the balance.

I guess my point is this: Recently I told John that I had trouble trusting a God that would let us suffer at the hands of a person that pretended to be His faithful servant. A person who was in the choir and head of a prayer chain, someone who was relied on in the church. What had triggered all of this was visiting my brother 2 years ago and having him tell me things she did to him, horrible things. All of those years believing that he had had it better than me, when what she did to him ended up being so much worse.

But at the moment I found out about my cousin I decided that I was going to pray for complete healing. I wasn't messing around, I was going for the whole enchilada.

God does answer prayers. Sometimes not in the way that we wish, or in the time frame we desire, but He hears us and answers.

And sometimes, in His mysterious way... He preforms a miracle.

For my cousin, He healed her body.

For me? He healed my heart and restored my faith.

Today is good day. :)

My cousin Rachel

2008-03-18T13:24:00.004-05:00

Please read my other post from today too! :D Scroll down for humor and Anna-isms. ;)

I just wanted to thank all of you who posted a comment, and all of you who are praying for my cousin. I really believe in prayer, and my aunt says that she is being strong... so I know all of your prayers are working. :) I told my aunt that it is no surprise, Rachel has always been strong. ;)

Her husband isn't doing quite as well, he is having a really hard time with it all. I told my aunt that I think men in general have a hard time with this sort of thing- I know John was a mess and tried to hide it when I had a caner scare over 4 years ago, when I found a huge mass on my right thyroid. Men are taught at a young age that they should ignore their feelings and just be a man, to grow up, where as us gals are given license to scream and cry from day one. So... if you guys could continue to pray for Matt as well, that would be great, thank you so much!

My aunt Yvonne will be letting my brother know the results of last week's test sometime this week, and she and my uncle flew out to Texas on Sunday. My aunt should also be finding out when Rachel is going to have surgery, so I will let you know.

Again, I can't thank you all enough, on behalf of my family and hers... It really means a lot to me that I can rely on the kindness of fellow bloggers.

Hugs, Mary (mert)

What a stinker!!!!

2008-03-18T12:54:00.007-05:00

Anna has come to know and trust her mom as a pit checker. This means that if she is in any way concerned that she might be a little funky, she presents her arm in a salute and I do a quick damage control assessment. And sometimes I have to slap some deodorant on her pits after she has had an energetic day at school, because my girls don't get baths every day... they both have very dry skin and eczema. :/

Since nothing is sacred in this house, especially any alone time a mother could wish for ( ie: restroom breaks), Anna barged into the bathroom and asked that I do a pit check. From the throne I leaned forward and took a whiff, gasped, coughed, then took another whiff.

Upon seeing what I can only assume looked like shock, horror and/or utter disbelief, my darling 7 year old began to laugh hysterically. She laughed the laugh of a seasoned practical joker.

She literally ROFL'd.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?!!!!"

"Yeah," she giggled, barely able to form the words, "I knew it was bad, I wanted to see the look.... bwahahahahahaahahhhaaaaaa!"

*sigh* I shudder to think what April Fool's will bring. Heaven (and Proctor and Gamble) help me.

Today, Anna and Emma watched Diego (Anna is on Spring vacation), and Emma announced that she wanted to get Hungry Hippo Hippo ( Hungry Hungry Hippo) after seeing a commercial.

"You know, that game was out when I was a kid," I said to my two precious babes.

"When you were a kid, were the hippos like a bluish-gray," Anna asked me.

"Are you saying that I'm so old that games were in black and white when I was a kid?" My mouth dropped open in disbelief, then turned up in a smile because my sweet 7 year old is wise [and funny] beyond her years.

This was her response, or something akin to it anyway:

Man, are we in trouble.

I Believe...** PRAYER REQUEST FOR MY COUSIN*

2008-03-13T22:48:00.009-05:00

Today my brother Ben emailed me about my cousin Rachel, who is in her mid twenties and has a son almost Anna's age. She recently found a lump under her arm and had it looked at , they took some fluid from it and the test results came back cancerous. From what I understand- from what Ben told me- she was sent to an oncologist and they are waiting for biopsy results. They are planning surgery, and it will be happening soon.

I also believe that God is and awesome God, and that he has the power to heal completely. I believe that He cares for us and loves us deeply, even when we have separated ourselves from Him.

So today, I am asking all of you Christians, Jews and Catholics, please, to pray for my cousin. Please pray that God make her whole, that she comes through this untouched, that the cancer disappears by His hand, because He is and AWESOME God. I have faith that He can completely heal Rachel, and I am asking for you to please take a stand with me. Please pray for Rachel, her husband Matt, and her parents, John and Yvonne. Please pray for her sisters Sarah and Jennifer. I am praying for the most skilled physicians and nurses to be working with her, and for Rachel to feel love and peace, and unwavering trust and faith in her Heavenly Father.

John and Yvonne are flying out to be with Rachel this next week, I believe. My aunt Yvonne (seen sometimes in comments as Anti Yvonne) will be staying with Rachel if she needs surgery.

I hoping that at least once something good comes out of this blog. Thanks for reading this, and on my cousin's family's behalf I thank you for your generosity, your prayers and your faith.

The things kids say

2008-03-12T07:26:00.005-05:00

**Please scroll down for Wordless Wednesday**

Yesterday after John got home from work, he sat with the girls in the dining room. Anna played on a lap top while Emma watched, and John looked at baseball stats on another.

John- So, tonight you are going to be d like a big girl, right?

Me, from the living room- Yeah, no yelling and screaming or the bunny (her new Build A Bear) goes in time out.

Emma nods and points to Anna's computer- Ummmm-hmmm! noyellingandscreaming.com!

Me and John- Pfffffft.... Bwahahahaahhaaaa.

Me, after a minute, sarcastically ( IMAGINE THAT!), after thinking about the full hour she yelled and screamed the night before at bedtime- Yeah, right.

And this folks would be why humans don't eat their young. They're just too darned cute. Plus the little socks and underwear would be too hard to digest. ;)

BTW, she yelled and screamed anyway last night. The only reason she stopped was because employed a little tough love. Yup, you guessed it... the bunny. The very thought terrified her and she shrieked, so I compromised.

Me- Stop screaming and you can have the bunny back.

Emma- *GULP*

Me- Here's your bunny.

I feel so mean.

Wordless Wednesday- Bed and bean bag chair I made for Em's doll house today :)

2008-03-12T00:56:00.002-05:00

*** I KNOW it's supposed to be wordless but I was slightly annoyed that they don't make a boy's bedroom for the Fisher-Price Loving Family Doll House, so I made these for Emma myself. The bed is made out of foam, then material hot glued on... kind of wrapped like a present. Then I made the blanket with a sewing machine, and stitched the ends to the "bed" so that it would lay nicely and also so it stays on the bed no matter what. I couldn't figure out how to make a chair so i decided to make a bean bag chair too! The cool thing is that I just basically took an old Beanie Baby that was pretty ragged, and recycled the beans inside. ***

OK, maybe not :/

2008-03-11T10:00:00.000-05:00

First off, let me say that I just did my first official post for The Parent Bloggers Network. We received The Zula Patrol: Explore Space! DVD , but if you want to see what we thought of it, head on over to Simply Mert, my new-ish review blog!

Things are going good here at the 'vich front, kinda.

Yesterday morning Anna looked very pale and her cough was getting worse so I listened to her lungs, plus she had a fever of 102.2. I heard some crackles in the left lung and decreased breath sounds on the right (which is an indication of poor air exchange, possibly from many causes but in this case it could have indicated that her lower lung was already pretty well saturated with pneumonia).

Anna and Emma both had pneumonia twice last least year, and Anna had it once already this year (She was preemptively treated for pneumonia earlier this year because she had a nasty cold. The doctor had a hard time determining if he heard things moving in her chest or not because of all of her congestion, and since she had pneumonia twice last year he decided to go ahead and treat it.)so when my girls get a wet cough- especially if the gunk they cough up turns yellow- I don't mess around. I take them in.

John took Anna to the doctor yesterday and my poor girl has Walking Pneumonia.

Luckily I trusted my mother's/nurse's intuition and had her seen. Her chest began to hurt last night after being seen, which usually means the pneumonia is getting worse. Last year, she developed a 105 fever in less than 48 hours after the onset of symptoms... so you can see why it makes me nervous when my kids get sick.

Anyway, last night she got a high starting dose at 8pm (called a loading dose), and by 10:30pm her fever was down to 97.6 from 101.7. She was very angry with me that I didn't let her go to school today, so that's another good sign LOL! Usually when she is very sick, she's too tired for drama. ;)

To top it all off, Emma has decided that her night time bribes are no longer adequate compensation for going to bed like a big girl all by herself... and proceeded to scream of and on for over an hour. Taking short breaks when we went upstairs to console her of course! In the end I had to threaten her new Build A Bear bunny.

"Scream again and your bunny sleeps with the fishes."

I'm just kidding! I told her that I would put it in time out. ;) Evidently that did the trick, because "Nobody puts Bunny in a corner."

Oh no you di'int!

2008-03-10T11:40:00.005-05:00

Saturday night I was putting Anna to bed while John and Emma were at one of his coworkers/buddies house. Anna and I had to stay home because she is sick and coughing. :(

Anyway, I asked her what she was going to do all day Sunday (because I had to work 7-3:30 pm).

"Hmmm," she smiled,"fight with Emma?" She then laughed a very evil, maniacal laugh.

"Ha. Ha. Ha," I monotoned. She comes by the maniac part honestly, John and I both have a few nuts in our family trees. Let's hope that the evil part doesn't pop up again ;) (because she comes by that honestly too, I hate to admit).

Work.... how should I say it? What one word could I possibly use to sum it all up?

How about "SUCKTASTIC"?

I have been trying to avoid sharing the boring details of my anxiety and frustration. Not many people really, truly love their jobs so I know I am not alone... therefore what I have to say in the matter is completely mundane and not at all unique.

The first few days after orientation, one person decided to make it her missions to make sure I knew that younger her was the boss of older me by asking me in a slightly snotty tone after a very busy 1st hour of pushing around the same cart of things to restock because of the ~~very needy consumers~~ customers that kept asking me to help them... "if I was heading in the right direction".

Snark much? I'm not 12, for the love of biscuits... I'm a 38 yr old with a freaking work ethic. Shoot, I have more hours put in on the work force toilet than she has in her whole career. I was a bit put off, and I responded as politely as possible what I had been up to, then let my hair down with "So, yes, I THINK I'm headed in the right direction." Mentally, I added a "Batch!" to end of the conversation.

Some people whom I have confided in have told me that maybe it's just 'cause I'm the new meat on the block. To which I responded, "Well, I suppose that could be true... only I didn't hear her harassing the 18 yr old high school student every 45 minutes."

Yesterday, I worked my first early shift which is a completely different species from working the pm shift. The pm shift consists of restocking, prettying up the aisles full of product (straightening, smoothing, refolding... etc), and restocking all of the returns and items thrown into different spots of the store, basically where ever the customer see fit to drop it, ie: cosmetics in the chip aisle, clothing in the DVD section.

The am shift consists of putting up new sales signs, printing new signs, marking price labels for products that are out of stock or need to be pulled from the stock room. Also miscellaneous and tedious tasks such as dusting the jewelry cases.

Now here is my problem. I have a certain way of doing things, which is fine... I am open to suggestions. I have been told that certain things obviously need to be done a certain way, such as the more technical aspects like taking down sales signs with the use of a hand held type computer. Cool, fine, super even.

I have also been told that concerning said technical tasks, I will develop my own style of how those things, as in in which order I do the steps. I have also been told that I will develop my own style and preferences as far as doing tasks for my shift, as in which end I start my clean up and I how I am able to prioritize the things I am allowed to prioritize.

So, yesterday I am working in the massive womens/juniors department, plus jewelry, cosmetics, purses and hosiery (all of those departments are your work area when they tell you you are "Jewelry" for the day). All morning long, the team leader had me doing tasks primarily outside of my "zone", the work areas I was given. Then midday, I was given 4 tasks. These tasks were specifically for the jewelry person. I didn't ask to clean the jewelry counters, mirrors, and jewelry/watch display cases that sit atop the counters, plus the 3 other tasks. In the grand scheme of things, to anyone who didn't actually know I had been assigned to do these specific things before the end of my shift... and given the fact that Jewelry was only about a 10th of my total zone for the day, it may have looked to others like I was utterly and completely slacking.

During either shift the team lead will notify the various departments that they have "pulls", which is product that the stock room pulls out that needs to be stocked. In the middle of cleaning the jewelry department, I heard team lead say that there was pulls for basically clothing, meaning it could have been womens, mens, children and toddler/infant. Being that I wasn't horribly busy, and feeling confident that i could do the pulls after I finished cleaning in about 15 minutes, I volunteered to get the cart of pulls- which BTW only consisted of about 8 items at the most.

Here is where my own personl logic and work ethic comes in, my peeps: I decided that since I was actually given tasks that I had to do before I left for the day, that I would finish those tasks (which I had already done 3 out of 4 at this point), THEN restock the pulls. There was no word of any customer needing any of those items, so I figured that this was a good plan.

To recap, finish the tasks that were actually assigned to me first, then do pulls- which happen several times in one shift, and are pretty common... and there WOULD be more pulls later for sure, so what was the rush? It would get done, I would have it done as soon as my tasks were done.

See my logic? Let me just say that I pride myself in my work ethic. I don't slack, and I do my tasks until they are completed. I used to be a nurse, and was faced with life and death situations every day.

Anyway, one of the ladies that was helping me out during the day and showing me the ropes, asked me what the cart was. I said pulls. She glared at me, "You know, by the time it took you to walk all the way up here, you could have had them done."

I politely responded," Yes, I just thought that I would do the tasks that I was assigned, and then do the pulls."

"YOU COULD have had them done by the time you got up here. You'll learn," she says with a smirk and fake smile, while speeding off with the cart.

"What I have learned is that these people tell you to develop your own way of doing things, but what they really mean is do it my 'old and crusty assed' way of doing it, whether you like it or not, and eventually it WILL be your way," I thought to myself. GRRRR!

I still feel as if I was right, and I still feel as if her tone and snarkiness was not needed. I guess I'm still the new meat, so it's OK to hang me up on a hook and use me as a punching bag if your having a bad day. Sons a biscuits.

I was due my 2nd 15 minute break, and heard the team lead tell her she needed to go on her break. I knew I was due my break so i told the team lead that I was going too. While on my break, Miss "You'll learn" asked why I was taking my break and asked me who was on the floor in clothing. Basically she accused me of abandoning my post. i shrugged, trying not to show anger and seem insulted. I pulled out my work sheet,"It says right here 2nd break 2 pm."

"Ohhh," she said, realizing it was her and the team lead's mistake,"My break isn't until 2:15." Now the team lead is paging me on the walkie, not sounding very happy. I was annoyed and was about to respond, but Miss had realized the mistake and called her on it. Thank goodness I didn't need to respond, I was REALLY annoyed at how I was being treated.

15 minutes flew by and I soon back on the floor.

After I finished my mandatory tasks, I employed another bit of personal logic, which was this: "rezone" your light weight areas (cleaning, straightening etc), such as purses and cosmetics, which should take you 15 minutes tops, THEN do the disaster area that would be womens/juniors. At this point it was 2;20 pm, and I was stressing that I had barely touched my zones all day but resolved to make sure to do as much as humanly possible before the next shift came on. I am never one to leave work for other people if it can absolutely be helped, but I also feel that I need to at least to a cursory clean up in each section so that I know no one zone is a complete disaster, and so I can honestly say I walked though each and every zone.

So, less messy/barely touched zones (quickly) first, finish the shift working my booty off cleaning womens/juniors.

Miss "You'll learn" walked by while I was speed zoning cosmetics and snapped,"You MIGHT want to start walking your zones."

"Yes, I'm doing that right now," I said calmly, trying not to grit my teeth.

"YOUR TABLES ARE A MESS," she said as she stomped by, meaning that the clothing racks that hold shelves of folded clothing.

I was so angry at this point for being treated like I was a child, and said,"Can I do anything right today?"- not caring if she heard me or not at this point, luckily for me and my hot head, she was already pretty much out of ear shot, that's how hard and fast she was stomping.

Fine, I thought to myself, cheeks ablaze... I'll do Women's and Juniors and screw the rest. At 3:30 I'm outta here. I walked over and started refolding a table of completely screwed up juniors shirts and tanks. I secretly hated myself for letting her get to me, and for feeling like I was justified in not doing my job to the best of my ability, in my own organized way.

Luckily, there was a girl that came on shift at about 2, and neither of us knew it but our shifts were overlapping in Jewelry/etc. She asked me with a puzzled look if I was working there, I said yes... and that i was just chewed out because "my tables were a mess". She gave me a sympathetic look and said she would start at the other end and not to worry about it (as in, relax, it's going to be OK). Thanks Shelby!

I was telling John after we left The T property that i don't have a problem with people telling me I'm doing something wrong... and I actually appreciate it when someone tells me this without resorting to tattling on me to the supervisors/managers about it. I don't mean that i am afraid of all that, and/or being confronted by the higher ups... i'm an adult, and I have seen tougher stuff than a little talking to, whether it be professionally or personally.

What i would love and expect from anyone, including myself is a little professionalism, and to not be given verbal lashings because I lowest on the totem pole, therefore in effect deserving less respect in their eyes.

I would and do expect that confrontations be done in a respectful manner. How about this: Hey Mary, I was walking by and noticed that your tables are a mess. If Corporate came through right now, they'd be having a fit over it. you might want to go do that first and not worry about the other stuff right now."

See how that works? I could understand possibly being treated like that if say... i had been working there for 6 months, and if my work was consistently a mess. This was my 9th shift, only my 5th shift off of orientation, and my first day shift. Cut me some freaking slack, anyone?

So, there you have it. I hate my new job. The only thing i have going for me is the fact that almost all of the younger people I work with are more than willing to answer any questions, and even volunteer help when they see that "Oh crap"/puzzled/constipated look I probably have on my face.

Yeah, I think SUCKTASTIC sums it up pretty nicely.

Fill in the blank

2008-03-08T13:25:00.004-06:00

The Goddess of Those Who Shall Not Be Tagged...

(but she gets tagged any way, much to her dismay... and the last time I tagged her I pulled the "my toddler is actually tagging you, not me" card. heheheeheheheeee......squee! But I should be off the hook now since I just did call her a Goddess. But, I digress... maybe I should put up a poll? Hmm, there's a thought. This has to be the longest post whisper in parenthesis EVAH! Maybe I should make a poll for that too. I digress again! Maybe this is the longets post whisper ever, with the most digressions ever? Poll #3 anyone?) ...

has done what Goddesses [of Those Who Shall Not Be Tagged] often do, which is to employ the whole "do as I say and not as I do" tactic. ;)

Yes. She tagged me. Payback is a sumumma gun.

She has blessed me with an interesting meme, one where you fill in the blanks... which- if you know me even a little, you know how dangerous a proposition that could be, depending on my mood and which way the wind is currently blowing.

Anyway, enjoy... some of it will shock and amaze you, and some of it is embarrassing to admit- but we're all friends here right?

1. I can’t believe I’ve never…

got my driver's license

But I'm working on it. :/

2. Every time I think about … I still cringe.

mistakes I have made as a mother and wife

3. I wish I’d …when I had the chance.

used the GI bill for college.

Now I work for minimum wage after 11 years of nursing experience. *sniff*

4. I’ve never felt so out of place as when I…

go to work at my new job, with a bunch of high school and college students LOL!

5. … is my guiltiest pleasure.

Shopping online, especially the clearance sections.

6. I hope … knows how grateful I am for …

John, Ben, Marci, and Aunt Yvonne...

loving me for who I am, right now, flaws and all.

7. In my darkest hours, I ~~secretly~~ blame … for my dysfunction.

my genetic donors. BAH!

But, it's no secret. ;)

8. … changed my life forever.

Finding a man who loves me, finally having kids, disowning my mother, and reconnecting with my sister

If you would like to do this meme, let me know in comments that you are doing it and I'll check it out!

YES!

2008-03-07T10:09:00.010-06:00

I have good news... it's better than good news actually :D OK, for John and I it is. NO I'M NOT KNOCKED UP, don't even think it!

Toi toi toi, evil eye, evil eye!
Yes I'm in a weird mood, and no, I have no idea what I just said. :P

Since birth, Emma has been stubborn, opinionated and rigid. She fits right in. ;) Not to be unkind, let me explain what I mean. Besides head butting me on a regular basis when she was crying or upset about something, she also liked to head butt me when she didn't have my full attention... as in me trying to type with one hand while trying to get her to sleep. Another interesting thing about Emma was the fact that even though she eventually got used to sleeping in her crib for naps, and even though it only took us about a week to get her to go down without us being in the room with only her Fisher Price birdies to lull her to sleep... she would absolutely have a meltdown and refuse to sleep in her crib at night, even though she went down for a nap in her crib several times a day without a problem. At night, she wanted to be in bed with mom or dad. We had to take our mattress off the frame and put it on the floor, and one of us has to lay with her until she went to sleep, then we would slip her into her crib, and she would wake up after a few hours and we would have to start all over again sometimes. We are talking 3-4 months here folks... Yes, she was THAT stubborn at that age.

Then at 11 months, she moved from her crib to a full sized mattress on the floor and shared a room with her sister. We still had to lay down with her until she went to sleep, usually 1 1/2 to 2 hours. A few frustrating times, it even took almost 3 HOURS!

Again, we got her to lay down for naps pretty easily, only now she was in bed instead of her crib, and she still had her birdies to comfort her to sleep. BUT... still at night, she wanted mom or dad to snuggle with her until she fell asleep.

Eight months ago I tried to get her to go to sleep on her own, and she cried hysterically. It was heart breaking, so of course I couldn't go through with it. John and I trade nights putting her to bed, so it was guaranteed that you were going to have your patience tested while she climbed out of bed when she thought you were sleeping, had her poke you in the face while she thought you were sleeping, and even had you patience tested when she did these things after you actually fell asleep before she did... out of exhaustion or sheer boredom.

Well my friends, her 3rd birthday is quickly approaching. Believe it or not, Anna at this age was just as stubborn, only it was about potty training. At this age, Anna was just finally potty trained while Emma has been now for about 3 or 4 months. And at this age we were still trying to get Anna to sleep on her own, but didn't succeed until just before Emma was born. After Emma moved into Anna's room, Anna declared that it was not fair that Emma got to have snuggle time at bed time and she didn't... so one of us would snuggle with her and the other with Emma. Sheesh.

Over the last few weeks I have been ~~brainwashing~~ encouraging Emma to sleep on her own and said that she would be a big girl like her big sis if she could go night-night JUST like she does at nap time, and that bedtime is no different from nap time during the day.

Last night was John's turn to put her to bed, but Emma wanted mommy. I told her it was daddy's turn and she started to cry, "I don't want daddy. I'll go to bed by myself."

Instead of making it a big or negative deal out of it, I talked excitedly about what a big girl she was and how this was a big, exciting deal! And just when I saw a glimmer of doubt in her eyes I did what any ~~desperate~~ good parent would do...

I bribed her with money. Daddy took my cue and talked animatedly about how she could save her money and get those toys at the store she was always asking for but we never buy (cuz we are po', and we are mean like that).

"Yay! Toys! I want money, I want coins for my bank!"

John and I grinned at each other. mean while, it was my turn to snuggle with Anna at bedtime. After John spent about 10 minutes snuggling with Emma and getting her settled in bed, he went downstairs. I explained to Anna that I would be going downstairs too. While her not yet but almost 3 year old sister (most likely) lay quietly in her bed, playing with a stuffed animal... not making a peep, Emma's now 7 year old sister was weeping like a baby. I explained that it wouldn't be fair to Em for us to stay the usual 1/2 hour to 45 minutes with Anna, and that we would snuggle and say prayers and then I would be going down stairs.

Anna amped it up a notch. Again,I did what any ~~desperate~~ good parent would do and I threatened to take away computer privileges for the whole weekend if she cried loud enough to upset Emma, and make her cry. I also explained that the usual ratio of night time activities to snuggling could still occur, it would just have to happen before bedtime.

Good lord, people... it was if I had killed her puppy, Hannah Montana and Zac Effron all in one horrible and tragic dog walking hit and run. Really.

To make a short story longggggggg, Emma slept through the night after complaining only twice (about being hungry, and her belly not feeling good), and after consoling her then giving her medicine she was good.

What a gift this is... to have back 2 hours every other day. John and I can actually have comprehensible/adult conversations, we can enjoy watching movies together again. We can have mommy/daddy time again, which , when you think about it, hasn't really happened since the 2 1/2 months before Emma was born. Two and half short months of time together, which doesn't really count because we were stress and exhausted from being preggers.

the down side? At least an hour of work per week will be going to the kids for bribes/allowance LOL! Yeah, that's how little I make right now.

I'm wondering if 20 years from now we'll be sick of looking at each other (slightly annoyed at the very least) and wish to have those little boogers back to snuggle with.

I bet we will. ;)

You can't please everyone

2008-03-06T08:21:00.005-06:00

So, last night I was asking Emma about what she wants on her birthday cake. Didn't I just do all of that? For the last 3 years I have fought the overwhelming urge to combine their birthdays because just when I feel like I can let my hair down, here comes Emma's birthday too.

The poor kid is already destined to a life of hand-me-downs, and I would feel horrible about not putting as much effort in to her birthday... so I persevere. ;)

Anyway, last night I put the baby booger to bed, and after weeks of contemplating her birthday cake decoration request of "balloons", I asked her if there was ANYTHING else she could think of that she would like to put on her cake.

Emma- "I already told you, I want bah-loooons."

Me- "Yeah, I know, but I just can't figure out how to make balloons on your cake that look nice." ( and that don't look like multicolored spermatozoa, I thought to myself wryly)

Emma- "If you don't put bah-loons on my birthday cake, I'm not going to be happy."

Me- My mouth drops open in shock,"Wha?.... Errr, what did you just say?"

Emma- "I SAID, if you don't put bah-loooons on my cake............ I'm not going to be happy with you."

Me- "Pffffffffffffffffffffft, bahahahahahahaha! We'll I don't know what to tell you. Can't you think of anything, ANYTHING else?"

Emma- "Ohhhhh...," she sighs in disgust, "I guess pwincesses."

I have only one thing to say:

Thank God for little princesses. They make life more.... Oh, I don't know. Just more. ;)

UPDATE:

Just minutes after posting this, i washed up Emma after she finished her pancakes and eggs. In the kitchen, she says," I said last night if you don't put bah-looons on my cake.... I'm going to be sad."

I laugh while washing her hands,"I thought you said princesses would be OK."

"yeah," she says in a monotone,"that's ok."

I laugh some more, "You don't sound very convinced."

Ai-yi-yi.

Anna's Birthday

2008-03-05T14:24:00.007-06:00

Anna's Birthday was last Thursday... between preparing for her party and starting a new job, I was completely exhausted. Instead of making her birthday dinner of turkey burgers and fries like she wanted, her daddy had pity on his poor, haggard looking wife and took us out to Applebee's. Anna wasn't too terribly heartbroken over not having turkey burgers because she knew that a free sundae would be her just reward. ;)

As you can see in the slide show below, Anna was feeling generous and shared her sundae. At one point Anna exclaimed, "Did you see that? I was just scooping up some ice cream and Emma stole it... she scooped it right off of my spoon!"

We all got a kick out of that, especially since Emma didn't even try to deny it, she said"yup!". Plus, as the level of the ice cream went down, the closer to Anna the sundae got... so Emma improvised by laying across the table to make sure she could still reach.

The next night, we had Anna's party, everyone had a good time. Instead of killing myself by (wasting money AND) making a bunch of food that people never eat, but I still make because no one ever RSVPS and I am always worried we wont have enough food... We ordered pizza.

I think this year was my best cake ever, I spent a lot of time on it. I use a fondant recipe that calls for melted marshmallows and lots of powdered sugar to make it into a smooth dough. Let's just say that kneading it, kneading more to add food coloring and rolling it out is quite the ab workout. I was feeling it for days!

I totally and completely suck at frosting cakes (I want to take a class, but never seem to remember to sign up), but I do make up for it by covering the cake with pretties. Anna got a lot of what she wanted, which was anything Hannah Montana or High School Musical.

I can't believe my baby is 7, losing teeth and growing over 2 inches... growing more and more beautiful outside and in.

Anna, you continue to amaze me with your strength, heart, stubbornness and tenacity. I know that when you enter the world as an adult that you are going to continue to make something of yourself. All of those qualities are good ones... As your mom I want to tell you to keep your values, and continue to love with all of your being.

I love you sweet girl! I love you when you burp and giggle, priding yourself on the best burp ever. Even when you make those scrunchy faces from under neath narrowed eyes and furrowed brows, I still love you.

Even though we have had our "moments" I wouldn't change a thing about you.

Well, try to fight with your sister a little less ;)

Love you always,
Momma

Wordless Wednesday- Anna's Birthday cupake treats for school tomorrow

2008-02-27T13:43:00.002-06:00

It's all about the Benjamins, baby!

2008-02-23T10:45:00.007-06:00

I know, I know, you never expect a 38 year old, white-xican middle class mom of 2 to start quoting a rap song but you should know by now to expect the unexpected when it comes to the ol' mert. :P

I am of course referring to the fact that I got to train as a cashier at The T on Thursday. Let me just preface this whole post by saying that when Miss HR said that we would feel overwhelmed with all of the information that we received during orientation? Ummm yeah, just a smidge. Fortunately though, all of the fellow employees that I have worked with have been very nice and VERY patient.

Also,on a side note- we were informed for the 20th time during the 2 days of orientation that using the employee discount for anyone other than the people that are applicable is unacceptable. For me, that would be me and John will get his own discount card since he is considered a dependent. Once the girls are 16, if I am still working at The T, they will get their own cards. For the youngsters I'm orienting with, they can only use the discount for themselves. Using your discount for your family and friends will result in immediate termination. So, you can't purchase anything and let them pay you back, so that they will benefit from the discount basically. Keep this little tidbit stored away until the end of my post.

Anyway, after learning the basics and running drills with fake credit cards with my fellow orientees for about 1 1/2 hours, we were thrown to the wolves. I managed to get my first mistake out of the way on my very first live transaction, and it was a biggie. Yay me. *rolls eyes* HOWEVER, I was consciously anally retentive after that, but in a sweaty and nervous kind of way. ;) After that I made a few small fixable errors like the scanner picking up an item twice.

My newbie cohorts and I all got a few customers then had a lull for a few minutes, then I realized that I was first in line as far as customers coming from the back of the store. I realized that I should just plow ahead and take as many customers as possible to get more comfortable... and before I knew I was chit chatting with them like 7 years ago when I was a nurse. Talking to complete strangers came back with such an ease, and with the exception of 2 people talking with them was pleasant.

After about 40 minutes of checking out customers, I was in the groove and felt pretty comfortable... except when I remembered that the register times your transactions. Yes, you actually get "speed reports". You want to stay green, not yellow or red. I got a few reds, but for the most part green, but still when I heard that cashiers were timed, I was kind of floored. But I guess with more experience it shouldn't be a problem.

Overall though, it was pretty easy once I got the hang of it. The high school kid that was orienting with me jokingly complained that i was getting all of the customers being first in line at the registers, so I asked him if he wanted to switch registers. "NO," he held up his hands.

The night wasn't done after I got off work though, my MIL was nice enough to pick me from work. She needed to get Anna's birthday present yet so after I clocked out, I put on my coat to make sure I wouldn't be approached after hours (they suggest this), and I toodle'd around the curtain aisle while waiting for the MIL to get there. And waited , and waited. Some of the team looked at me questioningly and maybe even a little suspiciously.

Let me just say that I have this weird thing that even if I'm completely innocent, I get a little nervous (sometimes angry and indignant, but mostly nervous) when someone starts looking at me with narrowed or judging eyes. So, even if I'm not doing anything wrong, I probably look as if I'm doing something wrong. I'm a dork, sue me.

Anywho, I finally found the MIL, and we headed over to curtains. She had a cart full of stuff so I put my things on the bottom of the cart (pull ups, milk x2, cereal, and granola bars x2). After we picked out curtains that matched a Hannah Montana pillow case that I had ordered from Amazon.com, we headed up to the front.

As I walked to the front, I noticed the Team Leader that had been on my shift standing up at the register talking to the fella that was working the register... and then I noticed that her face fell from slight amusement to "Oh, NO she DI'INT!" ( and even possibly over to "B*tch, please!").

"Oh God," I thought to myself..."She actually thinks that I am retarded enough to try that- on the first day? Shoot, I know they are serious about firing... but I'm not that stupid. Maybe dumb, but not stupid." Completely innocent me, I practically implicate myself by nervously looking at the cart and trying to bring spit back into my dry mouth by licking my lips.

Then, as I neared the ~~gallows~~ register, I realized, "Hey, you have endured much worse than this... This is just a Pavlovian response to your upbringing, and the oh so familiar look she is giving you. You didn't do anything wrong. So, you were punished as child, despite whether or not you were guilty... get over it. You're not a kid anymore."

So I came to the register and calmly said," This is my stuff," as I put my things on the counter, 'And ALL of that," I made a pushing motion towards the 1/2 full cart," is my MIL's." I smiled reassuringly, and looked the Team Leader square in the eye.

I mean seriously, why would I agree to work so hard for such little pay and go through the agony of learning so much information in such little time... just to mess it up, all for a 10% discount? OK, maybe for a 40% discount, but 10% is hardly worth the effort. ;)

Turns out my discount card still wasn't working, so they owe me $2.20. Sons a biscuits.

Of course, after we were all done being rung up, I started to shake out of nervousness (Old habits die hard. Thanks mother). I realize that she was just doing her job, but man do I hate that feeling. I'm sure every new employee probably gets that "Sucka, PLEASE!" look the first time they approach the register with someone else, but it just makes me feel bad.

Oh well, I'm sure this will make a good story next year at the Christmas party. ;)