And the Mom of the Year Award goes to...

ME!!!

 

1st place for loosing my child at Six Flags.

 

Yep.

 

Don't be jealous.  With a little work and dedication this may happen for you too.

 

Here's my story:

 

Today, my crew met Aunt Mimi and cousins Lorelai and Troy for a fun-filled Six Flags day.

 

 

 

We had a fabulous day, absolutely no lines, cool weather (shocking for June) and it was overcast.

 

So, barring a little whining and skinned knees from Charlie, nothing could go wrong.

 

Until the last ride of the day.

 

The Mindbender.

 

Melody and Troy were just tall enough to ride it. (Charlie was tall enough too, but being our resident 'fraidy cat, he opted to hang with Aunt Mimi.) They were so excited...their first upside down coaster!

 

We got up to the front, and I realized that two small children, two bigger children, and me, posed a coaster seating logistics challenge.

 

It was decided that I would go with Melody and Troy would ride either with Jack or Lorelai.

 

Jack decided he wanted to only go with Lorelai and that he would sit this ride out and go with her the next time around.

 

Except the next time around, the littles wanted to go again.

But not together.

 

So, I tried to have Jack go with either Melody or Troy but no go.  Apparently, Lorelai is is favorite cousin and no one else would do.

 

 

He stomped angrily towards the exit to go wait with Aunt Mimi and Charles.

 

When the ride was over, we walked to the exit where Aunt Mimi and Charlie were waiting.

 

Without Jack.

 

We looked all over the place.

 

Finally, Aunt Mimi sent me along the walk of shame to the Lost Parents booth.

 

So, I walked (ok ran) over there, trying to keep the rising panic at bay.

 

And there he was.

 

Apparently, he had come out of the ride and somehow he and Aunt Mimi missed each other.  He just continued walking up the hill and out of Gotham City and finally sat down on a bench to rest.

 

Where a lady in a "dress with swirls" on it walked up.  She asked him if he was here with his mom, to which my son responded, "Yeah, she's on the Mindbender and I have an aunt around here somewhere."

 

(Thanks for throwing me under the bus there, honey.  I'm sure that lovely lady thinks I just dump my kids in Six Flags and go gallivanting off)

 

She then took him over the the Lost Parents booth.  Where I found him about 10 minutes later.

 

We went back to the Mindbender where he finally got that ride with Lorelai.

 

And then we had a discussion about staying at the exit until the other people you are with finish the ride.

 

The excitement never ends!

 

 

 

You Get What You Deserve

You're probably wondering what this picture is and why I've posted it.

It's a dead bird.

Precisely, the dead bird I caught my children playing with.

They built a nest in a bucket for it and were currently scouring the yard for worms when I discovered them.

You're probably wondering what I was doing while I was neglecting allowing my children the responsibility of some independence.

I might have been sneaking a few of their incredibly yummy vanilla cupcake flavored goldfish.  And watching a re-run of the originial BH 90210.

Shameful, I know.

Well, I got what I deserved.

Tree down!

Last week we went to visit our favorite friends in Tampa and, among other fun things, spent a day at Disney! Don't worry, I have several posts about Disney coming in the next few days.

However, we had a surprise waiting for us when we came back.

On Thursday night intense storms went through Atlanta. A friend told me that it was the worst he's seen in the 26 years he's lived here and that it sounded like a tornado going through.

He wasn't so far off. When we returned, we found a large tree in our backyard had been practically uprooted by the storm.

Aside from the fact that took out three other smaller trees and part of our neighbors fence, I was also really sad because it was a really great, old tree. I feel like our yard's kind of bare without it.

The kids, however, have been having a great time. It's perfect for jumping off of.

And for climbing in. And pretending to be a fort, boat, treehouse, etc.

They were mildly very disappointed when the tree guys came to cut it up and carry it away today.

Our Swiss Family Robinson days were pretty short lived.

PSF and Unnecessary Organs

If you tweet or facebook, you probably know by now that this was not your run of the mill stomach bug.

After a night of watching Jack writhe around in pain, we ended up here.

Waiting for surgery.

(Seriously, why do we even have appendixes?)

Thankfully we caught it early and his appendix was able to be removed laparoscopically.

It was a crazy 30 hours.

By 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, I had met with the surgeon in our ER room. Jack was given an IV and some morphine for pain. Seeing a 5 year old on morphine was quite entertaining. Especially when I asked him how he felt, and he poked at his stomach then said, "Hey. I feel gooood."



At 9:00 they took him into surgery and he was in recovery around 11. (While they did want to get him into surgery pretty quickly, there happened to be a cancellation in the OR that day and he ended up being the first case of the day.)



He got up and walked for the first time just a little after dinner time.

And by Thursday morning he was ordering pancakes and bacon for breakfast!

We were discharged around 11:15 and he's now at home

already torturing playing with his little sister!

I guess that's a good sign.

(Sorry for the poor quality photos...some of them were taken with my Blackberry.)



Hosted by Cecily and Robyn

True Story Tuesday and the fake Christmas tree

You've probably noticed that we have a fake tree. Unless of course, you're used to seeing live trees perfectly triangularly shaped.

We haven't always had a fake tree. Up until Christmas 2006 we had always had a real, live tree.

Christmas 2006 was our first Christmas we stayed at home. Jack was 2 and I was almost 9 months pregnant with Melody.

A few weeks before Christmas we went over to Webb and Lindsey's house for a little Christmas cheer. When we arrived, Lindsey was frantically sweeping the floor. She insisted that she had swept several times that day but that she kept seeing stuff all over the floor. Webb and Alex go in for a closer look and discover (be prepared to be freaked out!) bugs crawling all. over. the. tree.

After completely freaking out (ok, only Lindsey and I freaked out) we quickly un-decorated the tree and disposed of it outside.

When Alex and I got home, we immediately inspected our tree (since we got it at the same place as they did). Fortunately, we were bug free. However, I just couldn't let it go and continually checked it over the next few days. And lo and behold, a few days later (be prepared to freak out again) bugs on my tree!

We un-decorated our tree and took it outside. We went back to the place where we bought it and they let us pick out another tree. After all we had to have a tree on Christmas! After careful inspection, we deemed it bug free and brought it home.

A few days later, on December 23, Jack and I were wrapping a few more gifts and placing them under the tree when I noticed some tiny specks on the floor. Yep, bugs again. (Cue more freaking out.)

I began un-decorating the tree and called one of Alex's buddies to help me drag it outside.

Remember at the beginning of this story when I mentioned that I was almost 9 months pregnant with Melody? Well, I tend to be a little on the dramatic hormonal side all the time when I'm pregnant. So, pregnancy hormones plus having two bug infested trees really pushed me over the edge.

By the time Marc got over here, I had already managed to drag the buggy tree outside. I then lopped off the top, (which was crawling, crawling with bugs by the way) and put it in a garbage bag and headed over to the place we got the tree. When I arrived I asked to see the manager. Looking back, I kind of feel bad for the poor guy. He was this nice guy and I don't think he knew what hit him when my hormones attacked him. I gave him the garbage bag and told every. single. detail. of the two bug infested trees. Including freaking out about how bugs were currently crawling over my very favorite angel tree topper (which was in the bag).

After I was finished he looked at me and asked me what I wanted him to do. My answer was simple and straight forward, "Get all the bugs off my tree topper and let me pick out an artificial tree and give it to me for free."

He didn't hesitate even a second before saying, "Deal." I think he was worried I might go into labor if I got any more worked up!

He took the bag from me and went to work on the tree topper while I walked back to where their artificial trees were. There were slim pickings since it was practically Christmas, however there was one relatively decent, pre-lit tree that I snagged. They loaded it into my car and off we went. My hormones were still raging and I some how managed to get this extremely heavy tree out of the car and up into the house and then I practically had the whole thing up and decorated by the time Alex got home from work.

Here we are in front of our fake, but more importantly, bug-free tree!

We have used the artificial tree for a number of reasons every year since. Convenience is certainly one of those reasons and I'm also a little nervous about having another bug infested tree. However, I think that next year we'll give the real thing another try. After all, finding the perfect tree is all part of the Christmas experience!

Don't forget to head on over to Once Upon a Miracle for some more True Story Tuesdays!

Charlie and the terrible, horrible, no good very bad day

Anyone who knows anything about me knows I hate bugs with a passion. And I'm terrified of them. I won't kill them, I won't catch them, I just run screaming from them.

(Yes, I know all my IRL friends and family are nodding their heads and rolling their eyes right now.)

Yesterday poor Charlie had a run in with one of those heinous creatures.

We were playing outside on the deck and all of a sudden he started screaming. At the top of his lungs. As if someone was pulling his toes off.

I run over and try and see what's wrong. He's swatting at his face, but I can't see anything. I finally catch his hands and am turning his head around and still can't see what's gotten him so upset! I move his head again and finally see it.

This #*&(%$* thing caught in the folds of his sweet, fat, little baby neck.

Stinging him.

More than once.

Poor baby.

I did run screaming, but after I killed it. And continued to freak out about it long after Charlie calmed down. Fortunately, he was alright and didn't have too much of a reaction. Just a little bit of swelling where he was stung. A little Bendadryl helped with that issue. As of this morning, the swelling is almost totally gone and there's just some slight redness at the stinging sights.

A warning to all yellow jackets; stay away from my baby!!

you don't know what you got until it's gone

Warning!!!

This is a post about breasts. You know, boobs. My boobs in particular. So if you are of the male persuasion or simply don't want to read about breasts then this post is NOT for you.

Consider yourself warned and don't come crying to me if you read it anyway and are scarred for life.

Back in the day, you know, before kids, I had what I thought were decent breasts. Now that I've had kids, I've come to realize they were the best breasts ever.

My wedding day...notice the perfect cleavage peeking out the top?

Yet, I didn't appreciate them at the time. I can still remember standing in front of the mirror pointing out my breasts imperfections to my sorority sisters.

(*Note: Even though I didn't fully appreciate them, I did realize their power and went to extremes to take care of them. A friend of my mom's had told me to always wear a bra even at night to prevent sagging. I took that to heart. Seriously, I think the only night of my life I went braless was my wedding night, per my husband's request! And just in case you're wondering, that little tip turned out to be BS. Yep, all those nights of wearing a bra did nothing for me.)

"They're too big!" I would whine, "I can't wear that type of bra with these boobs. I guess I'll just have to go braless. *sigh*"

If I only had that problem now! Now I'm saying, "I can't go braless...they'll poke out the hem of my shirt!"

My friend Lindsey at one point asked her now-husband Webb (aka Alex's boyfriend) if they were fake! Talk about a compliment! That's the best one I've ever received. Natural breasts so firm and perky that you can't tell if they're real or fake! That's boob perfection, my friends.

Then I had kids. Plural. Had I stopped after Jack they probably would have survived. They wouldn't have been the same but they were ok, like average, yk.
But Melody, my champion nurser, sucked. me. dry. She would probably still be nursing if I let her! They were pretty much a mere saggy memory of what had been after Melody got through with them. Charlie finished them off. Even the slightest hint of what they used to be is gone now.

Now instead of trying to find shirts that cover them appropriately, I am looking for clothing that will give the illusion of cleavage. I've become pretty good at faking it, thankyouverymuch.

As I've dealt with the emotional turmoil of the loss of what I once viewed as my greatest (physical) quality, my husband has been so supportive. When I asked him to be honest and tell me how they really look he told me he still loved them and they weren't that bad. His exact words were, "It's not like you look like some tribal woman in Africa."

Thanks, honey.

He also told me that he'd be happy to pay for a lift and/or implants.

That's sweet.

Thank goodness the three absolutely adorable children I have were more than worth the price I paid. Don't you agree?