my world

As I left the hospital, I gave Dad a big, not too tight, squeeze and followed the nurse down the hall. At 7am, the doctor came in, pulled the drain out of Dad's chest and gave him his walking papers. He will be released sometime this afternoon. Throughout it all, I haven't been that emotional. At times, I felt concern and shock when I first saw him in ICU but not the distress as when Mom was sick. I'm not sure why? Wasn't Dad's quadruple bypass every bit as serious as Mom's battle with cancer? A friend said the difference is the weight of primary caretaker didn't fall on my shoulder's with Dad like it did with Mom. Thank God for Pam. You can really see how much she loves Dad in the little ways she cares for him. She jumps up to straighten his pillow, rubs lotion on his legs and feet and tenderly caresses his forehead and cheek. Throughout the weekend she repeatedly said, "He has to be okay because he's my soul mate ." I'm so glad Da...

We won both games Saturday. The first game was against the team I pulled Baby Girl off. I heard through the grapevine that their coach really wanted to stick it to us. I couldn't help but feel the same. Nothing wrong with a little competition, Right? We won 18 to 16 or something like that. I have terrible cell phone reception in the hospital but after the game Mom left a message on my voicemail. When I got the message, I sprang up jumping up and down and yelling, "We Won, We Won!" Thank God, I was in the hospital cafeteria and not ICU. I spoke to Hubby, Mom, Dad, Paw Paw, Grandma, a couple of other parents on the team and Baby Girl to try and get all accounts of the game. Wish I could have been there.

Only my dad can make quadruple bypass surgery look easy. He went in the hospital on Friday, it's now Sunday night and they say he might get to go home tomorrow. When I arrived at the hospital Friday around 11am, I went immediately to the Cardiac ICU. I met Pam, my dad's wife, in the waiting room. She was pretty upset as you might expect but glad to see me. She said that he spent over 2 hours in surgery, his heart is pumping and so far, so good. Visiting hours for the ICU unit are every 2 hours for 30 minutes; 12, 2, 4, 6, and so on all night long. My first visit in to see him was pretty shocking. He had a gazillion tubes hooked to him, had a ventilator in his mouth and looked really swollen and pale. He wasn't breathing on his own. Besides his chest going up and down with forced breaths, he didn't move. I wanted to touch him but was too scared. I met his first nurse, Holly. She was really friendly and tried to assure us that he was okay. As I left ICU, it hit me. I did...

Okay so I haven't flown in a long time, my how things have changed. I made it to the airport at the butt crack of dawn, said goodbye to hubby, grabbed my full bottle of water and rolled my 1 suitcase to check-in. First time ever, there wasn't a crowd of people waiting for the ticket counter. I went straight for the ticket agent when I was directed to a line of computers directly in front of the counter. No biggie, I can handle this. I have plenty experience thanks to W almart and their self checkout. I followed all the prompts confirming my name, flight info and such. It then asks about luggage, I press 1 bag. It says it'll cost $15.00, how do I want to pay? Thinking I messed up, I looked for a real live person behind the counter to ask. Nope, no mistake. They charge per bag, is that not crazy? The cost of the ticket itself was outrageous! Before it'll print my boarding pass, I have to show the live ticket agent my driver's license. From 16 to probably 25, I've...

So you remember, I signed Baby Girl up for Tball . The team looked very promising. Most of the girls are from the kids school, either the same age as Baby Girl or just one year older. I liked the team name ( Xtreme ) and the team colors (purple and green) which, let's face it, are most important when choosing a team. I heard about the team from the mother of a girl on Baby Girl's basketball team. She's really cool. I had a blast hanging out with her during their basketball practices and looked forward to seeing her at Tball . The first practice was okay. They had all the girls rotating between stations practicing skills including hitting, playing catch, and running bases. I didn't instantly connect with the other moms on the team like I had hoped. It seemed like there were definite clicks from the get go. During practice #2, the coach placed my daughter in the outfield and with the exception of 1 time at bat, left her there for 2 hours without even 1 ball hit her direct...

I've been crazy emotional lately. I guess we can all get that way at times, just comes with the territory, I suppose. I've been throwing this out to my husband and friends, maybe I'm going through the change. I'm sure it's wishful thinking but I am having night sweats. I force my husband to keep the heat off in the house even on the coldest of nights. The other morning I woke up burning up and the temperature was 64. Baby Girl asked for blankets for her bed, she's freezing (poor thing). Most nights, I can't sleep. I fall asleep pretty easy but can't stay asleep. I'm moody, more so than normal I think and ( TMI , I know) my monthly friend's stays are becoming shorter and shorter. A friend says it sounds more like pregnancy than the change of life to her, but that's not a possibility, thank God. My dad went into the hospital today for a catherization (think that's what it's called). They went through an artery in his leg to see his hea...

I think my dad missed his calling, he should have been a meteorologist and work for the Weather Channel. He spends hours watching it not for the somewhat interesting stories of people surviving wild weather but instead all the weather people and their radars, maps, and lingo. So, here's to the weather. The first weekend in April, we had a blizzard. The biggest snow of the season (6+ inches) On the phone, Paw G suggested that Little Man go out and make a snowman (thanks Dad). So Little Man and I stuffed ourselves into our snow apparel to brave the elements. We built not one but four snowmen (1 for each member of the family). Hubby and the neighbors found it very comical watching us try to stack the gigantic snowballs. Baby girl was at Grandma's house and played in the snow there. Here's some pictures of Little Man and his fun in the snow. The snow melted in record time with temperatures rebounding the next day to the mid 60's. Over the past few days, we've had torna...

I added a new blog to my blog list. Someone my friend works with decided to "take a break from the 'real world' and travel halfway around the world. " This brave girl left her job, friends, and family to take this once in a lifetime adventure. Check out her bl0g of travels with awesome pictures included of New Zealand and Australia.

I have zero inner peace today. It was the first day back from Spring Break. Kids in school should mean peaceful calm, right . . . wrong. I just started a second round of tutoring in St. Louis so I had 20 student folders to prepare. This includes grading each test, entering into the computer, creating a learning plan, and then getting the materials ready for each student. Yes, the tests were UPS'd to me last Thursday, so in theory I had more than enough time to have them ready to overnight on Monday for tutoring on Tuesday. In my defense, Baby Girl had a stomach bug on Friday so I wasn't able to get anything done. I ended up grading them Saturday on the way to ride ATV's . I entered them into the computer Sunday evening after church and the T-Ball coaches meeting. That left everything else to be completed on Monday all before T-Ball practice at 3:00. Can you say, stressed out! It took me until 2:45 to get all the student folders completed. Hubby ran it to UPS for me as I bo...

I rarely forward junk email . . . I usually don't even read 'em. But lately, a few have caught my attention. Here's one, read and enjoy :-) GOTTA LOVE LITTLE BOYS Two young boys walked into a pharmacy one day, picked out a box of tampons and proceeded to the checkout counter. The man at the counter asked the older boy, 'Son, how old are you?' 'Eight,' the boy replied. The man continued, 'Do you know what these are used for?' The boy replied, 'Not exactly, but they aren't for me. They're for him. He's my brother. He's four. We saw on TV that if you use these you would be able to swim and ride a bike. Right now, he can't do either one.'

Mom works downtown where everyone's gearing up for the big concert including the churches. She sent me this email a few minutes ago. The Westover Baptist church will be demonstrating carrying signs which read "God Hates Fags". What is wrong with these people? Their key scripture is John 3:16 Mom What idiots! Let's all make our own signs "God Hates Baptists" and join the protest.

Tonight, the church where Baby Girl plays basketball hosted an end of the season banquet. We hung out eating hotdogs and hamburgers before we went to the sanctuary for the ceremony. As we grabbed a pew on the back row, hubby whispers "Here we go" as it begins. The kids former principal gives the message. I must say, if we had to sit through another "Come to Jesus" sermon, I'm glad it was him. He's so real, down to earth and very much respected in my book. In his message, he showed a video he created with his youth group. It started with 3 girls in a car, it wrecks, and they die. In the next scene they are standing before Peter and the pearly gates. In the end, two of the girl's names are found in the Book of Life and the third is not. She's then immediately grabbed by the Grim Reaper and taken to Hell. I just hate the whole fear factor approach to salvation. Little Man leaned over during the Come to Jesus Alter Call where I must say not in 3 long hym...

When we found out that mom would battle colon cancer, I spent hours researching on-line. I found several blogs that provided so much information on what we would face. Shawndra and Michele were so inspiring, I have both their blogs listed on this page. Michele's blog is titled "After the Fight" which as you can gather means she beat it. Shawndra , I believe, is victorious as well just not in the physical sense as Michele. The last few posts on her blog have been heartbreaking. Please join me in prayer for Shawndra , Doug-her husband, little Ella-her daughter, and the rest of her family as they say their goodbyes.

The loud mouth in the corner's getting to me, talking 'bout my earrings and my hair. . . guess he ain't read the signs that say I've been to prison, someone oughta warn him before I knock him off his chair. . . cuz my long hair just can't cover up my redneck, I've won every fight I ever fought... I've never been to prison or purposely knocked anyone off their chair, although I am known as a "loud mouth" at times. Sunday, I went to church and really connected with the message on "Repent, for the time of the Lord is at Hand." When I think of Repent, I'm reminded of the church my family attended when I was young. It was a definite religious, holy-rolling church. Although my parents were faithful members, they did not buy into all the religious rules that went with the denomination. They made sure that my brother and I knew just where they stood but when members came to our house, they did close the doors of the entertainment system to...

Not sure if it adds or takes away but I read a blog that has music and kinda enjoy it. You have contol over the boombox at the top of my blog. If you want to switch songs or stop the music all together, its' your choice.

It's Dr. Seuss Week at the kid's school and today they were suppose to dress up as their favorite Dr. Seuss Character. Little Man says he's way too big for dress up, but it was right down Baby Girl's alley. I decided she'd be Cindy Lou Who mainly because the costume would be the easiest to pull off considering I didn't find out about it until Sunday night at 8:00. Okay, for those of you not well versed in Dr. Seuss, Cindy Lou Who was in the book and movie, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Truthfully, I don't remember reading the book. I think we saw the movie but I'm not sure. Anyway, here's what I found on-line, the inspiration for our last minute attempt at a costume. She's cute, huh. Well, Check out my little Cindy Lou Who! Baby Girl gives a whole new definition to the word cute, if I do say so myself. She'd made Dr. Seuss himself proud! What do you think?

I'm sitting in bed blogging while my husband and I watch"The Amazing Race." We're both reality show junkies and "The Amazing Race" is one of our favorites. Yea, it would be nothing short of amazing to race around the world but my husband and I are so competitive and intense, we'd be that couple despised by America and on Dr. Phil when the race was over. This weekend, I felt like I was running "The Amazing Race" minus my partner, airports and amazing places. The first leg of the race started Friday morning with getting the kids off for school around 8:20, I worked some on-line finding science fair project stuff for Little Man and my students I'm tutoring in town. A tutor called because he did not receive his paycheck last week. Hubby cancelled the one mailed earlier in the week and printed a new one. I promised I'd bring his check to him later in the afternoon, one more thing added to Today's To-Do list. Challenge 1: By 10:30, I was ...

I've really thought about a friend's post titled Ignore Your Children. Her post spoke volumes to me especially after the mess I created on Friday night. The trend in parenting these days is everything you do as a parent should totally center around your children. I know that I, but strangely enough not my husband, have felt the need to throw myself into my kids my every waking moment.. Whenever I'm going to the store for groceries, to the mall to check out sales, or anywhere in between, I must take the kids with me or at least ask if they want to go. The answer is usually, "Yes" and so off I go, kids in tow. When I don't offer to take them, I feel guilty. Right now sitting on the couch typing this and watching Amazing Race on TV, both kids have already asked several times if they can sit by me. This is one of the few times I've said no. Usually, I have them on either side fighting over who has more of me. The guilt of not making everything or at...

How can we sing the LORD'S song In a foreign land? Psalm 137:4. Baby Girl is playing basketball in a church league called Upward Bound. I really enjoy taking her to the practices, I love the parents I've met, and everyone (me, hubby, grandma, paw paw, nana , and grandpa) love her games. She's playing with Pre -K and Kindergartners . They forget to dribble alot and run the wrong way at times. Baby Girl and a few others on her team are actually pretty good for their size. They score 5+ baskets each game, hustle up and down the court, play great defense . . . I just love all of it! Well almost all of it, I don't love that at halftime a member of the church gets up to "talk about the Lord" and offer everyone salvation tracks. GRRRrrrrr . I'm a believer and the brief sermons crawl all over me, I can't imagine how the nonbelievers feel. This past game, this guy gets up and talks about "his best friend Jesus". Over 20 long minutes, he miraculously ...

Tonight I went to tuck Little Man in for the night. Giving in, I got in bed with him for a few minutes. He asked, "Mom, will you pray with me." He bowed his head and began. "God, thank you for all the food, thank you for my new puppy, thank you for the Spelling Bee (he won the Spelling Bee last week), thank you for a wonderful mom to help me study and for a mean dad that makes me study . . . please help me stop biting my fingernails so I can get an Ipod and not just for that but because it's bad for me. Amen" Then he asked, "Mom, you know what's the last thing I want to do. . . what I asked. . . Grow Up. . . I think it's more funner being a kid." I agreed, kissed his cheek, and then snuggled him up for the night. Sweet boy!